Break-in at Lacey dry cleaners leads to K-9 being deployed

Lacey police deployed a K-9 unit Friday morning to arrest a man after an alleged break-in at a laundromat.

At 3:16 a.m., Lacey Police received a call from Howard’s Dry Cleaners off Pacific Avenue. The call, which was made from the laundromat’s phone, only contained the sounds of breathing. Lacey police sent officers out to do a welfare check on the business.

Upon arrival, officers saw the glass front door of the business had been smashed in, likely with a chair that was later found inside, according to Lacey Police Sargent Shannon Barnes. Officers heard signs of movement inside the building and called in a K-9 unit. The area was notified that a K-9 was going to be deployed to sniff out what was happening inside the building.

The K-9 led officers upstairs to a second-floor office, Barnes said. Inside the locked office, a man was refusing to come out. The officers forced their way through the door. When the man still refused to come out, they released the K-9 who bit the man and the man came out of the office.

When the man was arrested, he gave the officers no statement other than saying he was being chased earlier, Barnes said.

Lacey police attempted to bring the man to jail, but because of his wound from the dog bite, he was not be permitted inside and they released him.

Police forwarded possible charges of second-degree burglary and malicious mischief to the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office.