Representatives from Seattle Police and the City Attorney’s office have recently been touring East Precinct community meetings — they stopped into Montlake Wednesday night — to talk about burglaries. And Bud Larson.
According to court records, the prolific burglar was sentenced in December after being arrested for a vehicle theft and a home burglary on Queen Anne last summer. Fingerprints left on a hummus container gave him up, by the way. Unlike many sentences handed out to property thieves, Larson’s 100-month sentence was remarkable. But it could have been much worse.
Larson is an example, the authorities say, of how just one individual can impact community crime levels. But he is also an example of the possibility of redemption after a fall. According to prosecutors, after his arrest and rehab for his drug addiction, Larson decided to come clean on dozens of other burglaries he admitted to committing in a 3-month 2011 spree.
In all, Larson admitted to more than 30 home burglaries in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood — and at least one on Capitol Hill’s 10th Ave E.
Even with his assistance, Larson was still sentenced to 100 months in jail. He also owed $600 in restitution, the court ruled. SPD burglary detectives, meanwhile, now have a slightly smaller mountain of unsolved cases.
We reported on the latest East Precinct burglary trends here.
