Police collar area burglary suspect
December 3, 2008
By J.B. Wogan
Edmonds police have arrested a Pittsburgh, Penn. man, 19, who they say burglarized a home in Sammamish and elsewhere in the state. Several residents have reported encounters with the man, who identified himself as a door-to-door magazine salesman. In the Edmonds case, he was charged with burglary and robbery.
Detective Bill Albright, of the Sammamish Police Department, filed his case with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in early November.
Police say the suspect committed three recent burglaries, including the October incident in Sammamish. The other two were in Tumwater in September and Edmonds in October.
In the Sammamish case, the homeowner came home to find that the second floor window screen had been pried off and the window — which was previously left slightly ajar — was now wide open.
The suspect then allegedly stole $1,708 worth of items, including a $300 prototype of a new Microsoft Zune, a $700 diamond ring and a $500 pearl necklace.
“The Xbox, the notebook computers, they’re all there,” Albright said. Only small items that can fit in a suspect’s pockets are stolen in these cases, he explained.
There is still a chance that other potential burglars, under the pretense of being door-to-door salesmen, are roaming Sammamish, Albright warned.
Stan Bump, a resident due east of City Hall, said a stranger came to his door one morning in October, claiming to be a recovered felon who was using the sales job to change his ways.
“Deep down inside, you really want these guys to reform,” said Colleen Patterson, one of Bump’s neighbors. She and her husband Mike live on Southeast 8th Street and they, too, encountered the magazine salesman with a criminal past.
Patterson said she believes her neighborhood and ones like it are targeted because the houses are far apart and residents are less likely to notice suspicious activity on their neighbors’ property.
There is no evidence that connects the arrested suspect with the encounters experienced by Bump and his neighbors, according to police. The events are related only in that they speak to the phenomenon of door-to-door salesmen dropping into Sammamish in the fall.
In the case of the arrested suspect, a job training company hired him to sell magazines, Albright said.
“The type of people that they procure for employment might have less than desirable backgrounds,” he said. “Not all of them are bad. Many of them are legitimate door-to-door magazine businesses.”
The modus operandi of these businesses is that they hire employees who are in trouble financially, bus the employees to a specific location, offer them free room and board at a motel, and train them in aggressive advertising tactics, according to Albright.
Sometimes the crime isn’t outright burglary, but some sort of forgery, he said.
Albright said he knows of two cases in King County where a salesman altered the amount on a check from $41 to $4,041. Another classic tactic is to pull a check from the middle of a victim’s checkbook, which will not be obvious to the victim until far later, he said.
Door-to-door salesmen are required to register as a peddler beforehand with the city, according to City Clerk Melonie Anderson. If they do so, they will have proof of their registration on-hand to demonstrate they are legally selling subscriptions.
The suspect in the Sammamish case did not register with the city, according to Albright.
Patterson said people have shown up at her home for the last three years with stories of a criminal past and an eye toward reform through door-to-door sales. Each time, the door knocking takes place in late fall, she said.
Patterson and her husband have started using their home alarm system more, she said.
A handful of residents have set up a telephone network and agreed to call each other if they notice a suspicious person door knocking in the area, according to Bump.
Residents should also call the police about suspicious circumstances involving door-to-door salesman, Albright said.
“We need to know what’s going on. If you don’t tell us, we don’t know,” Albright said.
“Deep down inside, you really want these guys to reform.”
– Colleen Patterson,
Sammamish resident –
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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