On September 30th we caught a bit on the police scanner about a man who robbed a woman on Summit Avenue East, notably employing a Taser gun in the crime.

That man is now caught, according to the SPD blotter:

On October 8th, at approximately4:00 p.m., the victim of an armed robbery saw the suspect in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill and flagged down an officer.  The officer located and arrested the suspect.  The 31-year old male suspect was then transported to the Robbery detectives where he was interviewed and later booked into the King County Jail on Investigation of Robbery and an outstanding warrant.  The original robbery occurred on September 30th in the 200 Block of Summit Avenue East, where the suspect used a taser-like device on the victim and another man while robbing both of them.

Around 4:30pm on October 7th my black and white dog wearing a pink bandanna, Dita, was hit my a dark colored SUV. The SUV was traveling East toward Cal Anderson Park and struck Dita near the intersection of Denny and Belmont. Please e-mail me: carlos@agillian.com if you have any information concerning the accident.

Thank You.

CHS digs through a lot of Seattle Police Department reports -- but it's not very often we find ourselves in the write-up:

Sounds like the eyewitness report was related to this group of alleged thieves who robbed two men on Boylston in September and were believed to behind a string of robberies. No word from SPD yet if this tip helped, but arrests were made in the case and two of the suspects pleaded not guilty last week while a third also entered a not guilty plea today.

More from late September's police files coming tonight on CHS.

A thief with a sweet tooth hit the Online Coffee shop late Monday night. Here is the report from the SPD blotter:

On 10/5/09, at approximately 11:05 p.m., the suspect walked into a Coffee shop in the 1400 block of E. Pine St and asked the clerk for a brownie.  The clerk went and retrieved the brownie and when she returned, the suspect handed her a note.  The clerk took cash from the till, and gave it to the suspect.  He fled eastbound on E Pine.

As officers were responding to the call, they saw a subject fitting the description in the 1600 block of 15 AV.  That subject was standing behind a car, with the trunk open, and he was changing clothes.  When the officer  turned around to contact him, the subject was gone and the trunk was closed.  The vehicle was impounded it to the processing room.

The suspect is described as a black male, 6 feet tall, approximately 230 pounds, and bald head.

A gunshot rang out on Capitol Hill tonight following an argument involving a man and a parking attendant in a lot at Harvard and E. Thomas. Report is of one shot fired into the air by a man driving a green 1993 Ford Explorer registered to an address in Kirkland. Officers found the unoccupied vehicle parked a short distance away. The suspect is described as a tall, heavyset Hispanic male wearing a baseball cap.

The following are based on incident reports from the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.

Property damage

Just after 4 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, officers responded the 1700 block of East Alder Street after a woman reported hearing a loud noise coming from the street below her apartment. She looked down and saw a man inside a parked car. He was bent down under the dashboard, and she heard the noises when he started breaking the steering column apart. He was pulling so hard on the column that the car was rocking up and down. The suspect was also seen opening the trunk and was still rooting around the trunk when officers arrived. He was immediately detained. Officers found two screwdrivers and a flashlight in his pocket. They looked in the car and saw the ignition dangling from the steering column by its wires. The man was arrested and read his Miranda rights. He said the trunk was open when he walked by and denied being inside the car, calling the witness a liar. He was later booked into King County Jail. Damage to the car was estimated to be in excess of $1,000.

Drugs etc.

At 9:25 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, officers on routine patrol received a call that a female suspect with an outstanding felony warrant had been spotted leaving a bar near the 1200 block of East Jefferson Street. The word was that she’d gotten into a car as a passenger, and the car took off east along Jefferson. Officers caught up with the car on the 1800 block of East Jefferson Street and pulled it over. The female passenger immediately identified herself and acknowledged that she knew there was a warrant out for her arrest. Prior to re-arrest, she was asked if she had any contraband on her. She said she had an “8-ball of cream” on her; officers recognized the term as street vernacular for crack cocaine. A search was conducted, and officers recovered two small plastic bags containing a rock-like substance in her pants. The substance later tested positive for cocaine. The woman, who is in her late 20s, was arrested and booked into King County Jail.

Theft

At 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, officers responded to an East Alder Street house after a woman reported that someone had broken into her house. She told officers that she and her roommate left for work in the morning and came back home to discover that someone had pried the screen off a side window and gained entry. Once inside, the suspect (s) took a laptop computer, a cell phone charger and a bowl with about $20 in coins in it. It appeared the perpetrator left through the same window. A neighbor told officers that a lot of people came and went to the house. She added that she saw a car arrive at the house at around 8 in the morning. It stayed for a few minutes then left. Such behavior, she said, occurred about every two days.

Graffiti

At 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, officers responded to the Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library after learning that someone had sprayed graffiti on one of the library’s signs. That person had spray painted the letters TFS on a sign which has the library’s name and logo on it. Other letters or symbols had been sprayed as well but officers were unable to identify them. Officers photographed the sign and left a business card and a case number with the library. The cost for supplies and labor to repair the damage were estimated to be $50.

More graffiti

On Sept. 15 at 4:10 a.m.  officers responded to Seattle University’s Connelly Center after campus security called 911 to report a graffiti incident. A suspect had used black spray paint to write the letters SNLE along the east side of the building. Security thought the incident occurred between midnight and 2:30 in the morning. Officers photographed the graffiti. But since the university doesn’t have security cameras pointed at the east side of the Connelly Center, there were no suspects.

The following are based on incident reports from the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct . They are based on the officers’ accounts of the events described. 

At 11 minutes past midnight on September 11, a man called 911 to report that an assault had taken place near the corner of 11th Avenue and East Pike Street. Officers arrived to find a man in his mid-30s being treated by paramedics. The man was noticeably intoxicated. He was missing the top of a front tooth and officers thought a part of his upper lip had been ripped off. At first he was hesitant to tell officers what had happened, but he eventually told them that he was crossing East Pike Street when a car driving westbound failed to stop for him at a crosswalk. The man then pounded his fist on the car, which prompted the car to stop. The vehicle’s passenger got out of the car, walked up to the man and punched him in the face. The man got back in the car and the car sped away. A witness told a similar version, adding that the...

With concerns about safety and rising crime rates becoming a significant issue in the 2009 Seattle mayor race, Seattle Police Department crime data trends indicate that Capitol Hill -- especially in its Pike/Pine core -- is adding its fair share to the city's growing crime problem. Details on the ugly citywide numbers at the end of this post.

Three of the four East Precinct beats that cover most of Capitol Hill are trending above 2008 crime levels through July. The biggest change from 2008 comes in Beat C2 which includes Pike/Pine above Broadway. July crime in that area surged 68% compared to the same period in 2008. That increase represents a whopping 122% jump compared to June. Even with C2's July big one-month climb, the area remains behind 2008's totals for the year. But with many more months like that, 2008's rates are likely to be left in the dust.

The big problem on Beat C2? Theft. 42 incidents in July. 13 reported in June. That's a lot of bikes and shoplifting. Other worrisome trends? July's jump in burglary...

One of the men believed to have been part of a string of thefts including an armed street robbery on Boylston near Seattle Central early last Friday morning has been arrested, CHS news partner the Seattle Times reports, after police circulated surveillance images of the suspects and a woman who accompanied them.

The 24-year-old woman was arrested in Auburn and a 23-year-old man was arrested in Federal Way, both on Tuesday night.

The two are slated to appear in court this afternoon for bail hearings. They were identified by police as Sheena Blackburn and Jarvis Gibbs.

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said that the two suspects will be charged in the coming days.

Police are still looking for two men who are also believed to be connected with the robbery spree in North Seattle, Magnolia the Green Lake area and Capitol Hill since the first of the month.

Tips about the four alleged suspects poured in this week after police released from a convenience-store surveillance photo they...

A man suspected in this August 2008 home invasion in Capitol Hill's Miller Park neighborhood has been sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for his part in a string of home invasion robberies and a sexual assault in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Anthony R. Dodd pleaded guilty to charges that included robbery, burglary, and indecent liberties, Central District News reports.

The Seattle Police Department has released surveillance images of a group of men they believe are connected with a string of street robberies including an incident early last Friday when two men were robbed at gunpoint on Boylston Ave near Seattle Central. In the image, three men fitting the description of the suspects in the robberies can be seen at the counter of a convenience store. Anybody with information about the suspects should call 911.

The PI isn't reporting an increase, invasion or mass migration of heroin junkies to Capitol Hill. Instead, it reports on some recent arrests:

Seattle police have reported an influx of new heroin users around the Broadway corridor and officers have been revisiting known narcotics spots on Capitol Hill.

Police have responded to at least two non-fatal overdoses -- one Sept. 4 at Broadway and East Pine Street and another the next day on lower Queen Anne -- but medics have not noticed an increase in heroin overdoses, according to Fire Department and Harborview Medical Center spokeswomen.

The article then proceeds to report five heroin-related police incidents on Capitol Hill in the first five days of September. The article never explains why these reports represent an 'influx' or how the five anecdotes justify the headline. CHS finds heroin-related incidents from Capitol Hill in SPD reports with regularity and we're certain PI reporter Casey McNerthney has seen plenty before, too. Maybe the whole 'influx' thing was added by an editor -- or maybe McNerthney has some additional info from the East Precinct that didn't make it into the article. We're checking with him to see what else we can find out about the situation.

Lots of reports lately of Capitol Hill businesses being broken into -- two recent incidents here involving a tanning salon and a coffee shop, another here involving a CHS sponsor's shop. Here's a report of a Capitol Hill business heist that didn't happen. Last Thursday, somebody tried to break into Remedy Teas on 15th Ave E but couldn't get any farther than breaking off a key in the door's lock. Glad to find out Remedy didn't get ripped off -- also glad to provide a reminder for local business owners to make sure they've done everything they can to secure their investments.

Two men were robbed at gunpoint of cash and a cell phone early this morning in the 1700 block Boylston Ave E. Seattle Police Department spokesperson Jeff Kappel said the two men were robbed by 'between 1 to 3' assailants around 12:37 AM.

The nature of the crime and the description of the suspects fits into a string of armed robberies this week around Green Lake and North Seattle, the Seattle PI reports. Hours before the Boylston hold-up, SPD says the three suspects robbed five victims near Green Lake Thursday night:

On 9/10/09, at approximately 11:25 p.m.,  a citizen was robbed in Greenlake Park followed by the subsequent robbery of four more victims who had been walking along the Greenlake path. The three suspects were wearing bandanas (sic) across their face and at least one suspect brandished a handgun during the robberies. A K-9 unit and King County Guardian 1 helicopter responded to assist.

A man was robbed of his cellphone, iPod, backpack and wallet in the same area of Bolyston on July 20. The...

The suspects in last week's robbery of the Group Health Credit Union on 15th Ave may be responsible for 17 area bank robberies since June, the FBI says. In a bulletin (see attached PDF) distributed to media, the Seattle FBI office says it is seeking help in identifying the men it says may be 'the most prolific bank robbers in the Seattle area since 2006.'

These two men are believed responsible for 17 area bank robberies.  They should be considered armed and dangerous.  Anyone who can identify them, please contact the case detective.  They may be associated with an older model white Caprice (police sedan).

Contact:  Seattle FBI at 206-622-0460 or seattle.fbi@ic.fbi.gov; or Detective Len Carver at 206-262-2526

Meanwhile, Central District News is reporting yet another robbery downtown this afternoon -- the getaway car? Thought to be a white Chevy Caprice.

Here's a rundown of the 17 heists the duo is suspected in:

Here is the latest from the East Precinct crime files. Later this week, we'll also take a look at the latest monthly crime data from June released by the Seattle Police Department.

• Tanning salon burglary: Broadway's Fastan tanning salon (the officer mistakenly calls it 'Fan Tan' in the report, below) appears to be yet another Capitol Hill business nailed by a burglar in recent weeks. A few days after this incident, CHS sponsor Healeo was burgled by an opportunistic thief. Check out the next entry, below, for yet another example. In this Saturday night/Sunday morning August 23rd incident, the heist included cash, two plasma TVs and six stereos. Not sure what Fastan was doing with all that A/V but somebody made off with about $3,600 in booty, according to the SPD report.

• Another coffee shop hit: If you operate a cafe on the Hill and haven't been busted into yet, you're probably next on the list. The description of this business -- also burgled on August 23rd, by the way -- fits that of Cafe Argento on E. Olive and 12th. Sorry about the loss, Argento.

• Messed with the wrong Camry: More burglary, this time the target was an E. Roy's apartment building's parking garage and the burglar was scared off by a car alarm:

• Don't forget your card: Lots to be surprised about when digging through the SPD media reports but one that consistently shocks is how many people leave their ATM cards behind after getting cash. Don't do that. Here's an incident from late on an August Monday night.

• Putting this on Facebook: Grey Gallery played host to this drama involving a 40-year-old female suspect and the 38-year-old woman she assaulted.

Unpleasant Morning Surprise
Originally uploaded by sea turtle

• Spate of big rock vs. windshield incidents: This report from 13th Ave E and another one found from an August 20th incident on E Roy plus this picture submitted to the CHS flickr pool might indicate some kind of rock throwing shenanigan trend. Or it might be coincidence. You decide.

• More problems for Madison travel agent: Here's another report involving Alem Travel which has been in the blotter before as its owner has apparently skipped town and left customers in the lurch.

• Forgot gas, remembered heroin: East Precinct officers stumbled onto a heroin bust when they stopped to find out why a pickup truck was parked in the bus zone in front of Broadway market.

This suspect in a series of at least five Seattle-area armed robberies may be the same man who held up the Group Health Credit Union branch on 15th Ave at gunpoint Thursday afternoon. The FBI has confirmed that the GHCU suspect is tied to other recent cases in the area and may be working with an accomplice. Now it appears likely that the suspect is the same man pictured in this security camera grab from a robbery at a West Seattle KeyBank on August 5.

Thanks to West Seattle Blog for helping us make the connection. They report that the same man is suspected of hitting banks in North Seattle and a hold-up in Renton. The prolific outlaw is also suspected or nailing a Bank of America in Renton around 11:30 AM Thursday morning before making his way to Capitol Hill for the GHCU job around 3:30 PM.

The suspect in the Capitol Hill credit union heist is described as a heavy-set black male, 5'11"-6', with some facial hair, brown eyes and wearing a cream-colored baseball cap. He was armed with a revolver with a wooden...

The suspects in Thursday afternoon's armed robbery of the Group Health Credit Union on 15th Ave are believe to be tied to a string of robberies of south-county banks and credit unions, FBI spokesperson Frederick Gutt tells CHS. Authorities are still not revealing how much -- if any -- cash was taken in Thursday's heist. The man who held up GHCU is described as a heavy-set black male, 5'11"-6', with some facial hair, brown eyes and wearing a cream-colored baseball cap. The FBI believes he works with an accomplice who is also described as a black male. The Seattle bureau office is putting together a more comprehensive description of the suspects, Gutt said.

Gutt confirmed that yesterday's robbery of a bank in Renton was likely the work of the GHCU suspects. That robbery of a Bank of America branch happened around 11:30 AM in Renton's Fairwood neighborhood. The GHCU hit went down around 3:30 PM.

Gutt also confirmed that the robbery suspect killed by police last night in Federal Way is not believed to be connected...

Police SWAT and K9 units swarmed Lowell Elementary early Thursday morning after alarms inside the school were tripped. In a review of a recording of the morning's police scanner chatter, there is a report of the K9 unit finding trace of somebody around nearby houses, a report that a neighbor said he heard somebody in his backyard and the SWAT team reporting that they found nobody inside the school. The suspect was not found and we have no information about any damage or items taken from the school.

The Seattle PI reported on the break-in:

Police arrived just after midnight after a burglar alarm went off. A male suspect was seen running away into a neighborhood. A search by officers and a police dog couldn't find him.

Unless there were two very similar incidents on Capitol Hill that night, Rose Egge over at KOMO seems to have made a reporting mistake in her write-up of the incident:

There was a possible burglary attempt just before midnight last night at St. Joseph's School, 700 18th Ave. E.

Police received a...

UPDATE 3:59 PM:
From the scene, typical of many of these types of robberies, it's mostly quiet at GHCU's 15th Ave branch as investigators work the scene inside. Outside, would-be bankers wander up to the line of police tape blocking access to the front door and encounter the 'temporarily closed' sign -- the only indication that something unusual is going on inside.

A man who saw the aftermath of the robbery after the suspect had already fled, said an armored truck had been at the GHCU at the time of the robbery. The truck was gone by the time I arrived.

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UPDATE 4:50 PM:

More from CDNews:

Update: Police have some suspects in mind, not clear why, but think they might be heading to points south of the city

Update x5: Photo from earlier GHCU robbery 2 weeks ago in Tukwila matches the suspect in this one

Update x4: Updated suspect description: Heavy set black male, 5'11"-6', little bit of facial hair, brown eyes, cream-colored baseball cap

Update x3: Description matches that of a suspect who robbed a bank in Renton earlier today, and may be tied to a rash of earlier robberies of south-county banks

Update x2: Weapon used was a black or blue revolver with a wooden handle.

Original Report:
From our partners at Central District News:

3:26PM - 115 15th Ave E - Bank Robbery - Armed robbery of the Group Health Credit Union. Suspect is a black male, 35, 5'11", clean cut, cream colored suit, leather baseball cap, possibly associated with a white Chevy Caprice with a spotlight on the side like an old police car.

Heading over to check out the scene. You might recall that the nearby Wells Fargo inside Safeway was robbed back in spring.

UPDATE 5:20 PM:
We checked in with local news gatherers the Renton Reporter about another robbery that occurred today possibly involving the same suspect. The suspect in the 15th Ave crime reportedly brandished a weapon, however -- no weapon was used in Renton according to the Reporter:

The Bank of America branch in Fairwood was robbed at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday of an undisclosed amount of cash, according to the King County Sheriff's Office.

The robber, a black male in his late 40s, showed a note to a teller, took the cash, then fled on foot, according to Sgt. John Urquhart, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

UPDATE 7:20 PM:
Seattle Police Department spokesperson Jeff Kappel confirmed details reported collected from the scanner reports -- including that the robber was, indeed, armed -- but could not say if any cash was taken in the robbery or exactly how the robbery occurred. Kappel did say that the Ballard bank robbery reported by the Seattle PI today was actually a false alarm.

It's already September but we still have some mid-August tales from the East Precinct to share with you. First, a few more recent reports.

• Seattle Gay News is reporting another Hill assault involving possible hate motivation. A 26-year-old man was assaulted in front of QFC at Broadway and Harrison and called "faggot," according to SGN.
• CHS reported on this car vs. bike accident on Pike at 14th Ave that happened the night of August 26th.
• The Stranger has the goods on an August 20th altercation between a biker and a driver at the intersection of Harvard and Pike.

Now to the mid-August blotter reports.

• Media critic: Speaking of The Stranger, they're the victim in this rather icky incident from the afternoon of Monday, August 17. (including the word 'feces' in this post with hope that this article might end up in Lindy West's magical Google Alert). Note that the officer's report refers to The Cuff as a 'restaurant.'

• Value Village shopper vs. cyclist: Nearby the following day, this fracas went down in front of Value Village.

• Another thing you can't do in Cal Anderson fountain: Later in the week, police found this man passed out in a very poorly (un)chosen location -- the Cal Anderson water feature.

• Del Rey laptop thieves: Be careful who you come home from Belltown with.

• BMW tire thieves: This St. Mark's woman found that somebody made off with her BMW's left rear wheel.

• Repeat Belmont burglar: The suspect in this case is a recurring character type on the Hill. At least this one usually limits his theft to food.

• Pretty Parlor fashion thief: Most Hill shoplifting incidents involve grocery stores and clothing shops. Here's another for the latter category.

• Sports talk: This violent incident from the early morning of Wednesday, August 19, reportedly started over an argument about sports.

• Egg and ketchup attack: This tale of neighbor vs. neighbor involves egging and ketchup squirting. Very mature, Belmont Ave E.

• Not another Broadway pot bust: Before you get your NORML panties in a bundle, note that this driver was arrested for various vehicular offences not the blunt the officer allegedly found in the car. Then note that the officer randomly checks for information on passing license plates. Note also that the officer let one of the car's occupants leave because the person had to 'go to work.'

• Street robbery at Summit/Olive: Nothing funny about this one. Guy got beat up and robbed of $300 cash early on August 17th.

• Broadway Market parking lot rage: Lastly, here's an incident that illustrates at least one reason you should be careful about who you flip off.

UPDATE 2:12 PM:
The woman attacked in an alley near 17th and Howell around 3:30 AM had given her assailant a ride to the location, Seattle Police Department spokesperson Sean Whitcomb tells CHS. The 24-year-old woman suffered minor injuries in the assault. Whitcomb said it does not appear the man was armed. Whitcomb said the suspect managed to elude the subsequent helicopter and K-9 unit search. The suspect is described as a black male in his 20s, approximately 5' 8" and wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans and a black beanie at the time of the assault.

UPDATE 1:25 PM:
CHS just talked with area resident Nathan Williams who e-mailed us this explanation for the helicopter search. We'll follow up with SPD to see what else we can learn. Here's Nathan's mail:

I was awakened this morning at 3:30am or so by a woman screaming "help" (alley between 17th, 18th, denny, and howell). I dressed quickly and found her sitting on the ground. She had been beaten pretty badly and said a man had tried to rape and kill her. I asked her if the man was still around, but she said he had driven off. She had already called the police by this point and soon an ambulance came down Denny which I flagged down.

They started treating her and I went back inside. Soon after cops started arriving and searched the area pretty exhaustively (at least 6 cops, a dog) and the helicopter started circling around that time. I'm guessing it was a police helicopter looking for her assailant, though if he actually drove off I can't imagine it would have done much good. They roped off the area around her car with police tape but it was gone (as was the car) by the time I was up again at 8am.

The woman was in rough shape but none of her injuries seemed life-threatening. I hope she's doing alright.

bits of police tape morning after mystery
helicopter circling in middle of night 2009-08-27
Originally uploaded by pmocek

Here's the picture of the alley where SPD was investigating that Phil links to in the comments on this post.

Original Report:
Back on the CHS mystery helicopter beat. A flurry of reports of a late-night copter buzzing the Hill early this A.M. Looking into the why of it. Know anything? chs@capitolhillseattle.com

any idea why there was a helicopter hovering over my bedroom (16th & e olive st) last night at 3:52am? it was terrifying. i thought we might be under attack, but i guess not. i didn't see anything in the incident log, either. eventually, it circled a little until about 4:03am, when it left the area. i never heard any sirens (thank goodness) so i guess they didn't find the person/people for whom they were searching...

 

just curious (and sleepy.)

thanks,

alison

Thanks for the tip, neighbor Alison. Here are a few more Hill reports of the buzz:

• x03: Awake thanks to the Capitol Hill stealth helicopter special 4am edition. Internet proves useless in helping me get back to sleep...
• RobLaGatta: Anyone know what's up with this helicopter hovering like 20 feet above Capitol Hill with no lights on at 4 in the morning? Weak.

We'll check in with SPD and other powers that be to see what we can find out. A man was shot and killed around this time in the Mt. Baker area -- a subsequent search by helicopter could be an explanation.

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Before we dig into the Seattle Police Department incidents reports from the weekend, here's a collection of reports from the week previous. The latest monthly crime stat updates have also been released so we'll be digging into those soon.

• A bias investigation was conducted for this Friday, August 14th incident involving a 33-year-old male victim who reported being threatened by a group of suspects that could not be located.
  
  

• Early on Sunday, August 16, police found a 26-year-old man who had been beaten up and robbed of his cell phone by what was described a s a group of 4 to 6 black males at the intersection of Bellevue and Summit. The victim was bleeding from the nose and had multiple contusions on his face but declined treatment when the emergency crew arrived. The victim was intoxicated and had difficulty recalling the details of the assault.

• Here's more on an arrest we wrote about last week of a man busted on suspicion of identity fraud at the Chase bank branch on Broadway near Pike. At the time, we thought the name Remy Martin must have been part of his alleged con but, turns out, it's the name that was used when Martin was booked into King Count Jail.

• On August 14th, a Sea-Tac man reported that he was out $4,000 for a ticket to Addis Ababa from a travel agent on Madison. The man complained that Alem Travel had closed and that he could not reach anybody regarding his ticket, according to the report.
• On August 16th, roommates living in an apartment in the 1600 block of 15th Ave reported a burlgar had entered their residence and made off with a Bianchi hybrid bicycle, a Hewlett Packard laptop and three rings. The responding officer reported finding prints on objects in the apartment that were entered into evidence.
• On August 14th, a cab driver repoted getting stiffed by two customers who were later tracked down by officers in the Shell parking lot at Pike and Broadway.

On 08-14-09 I was working a marked patrol unit as 3E23. At 2337 hrs I was dispatched to an assault at Broadway/E Pike St where a cab driver was the victim. When I arrived I spoke to the victim, V/ said he picked up two fares, S/Lloyd and W/I ' at 4 Av/Virginia St and drove them to Broadway/E Pike St and the fare was $7.75. While stopped at the light at Harvard Av/E Pike St he said both passengers got out and began to walk away. V/ said he called after them to pay for the ride and S/Lloyd turned and kicked the front passenger side door of his cab causing damage. He said S/Lloyd then opened that door and pulled on the dispatch computer mounted on the, dash and ripped off the credit card reader and pulled wires out. He also grabbed, his trip log sheets and threw them into the street. V/ pointed to the intersection where I could see papers blowing around.

It's heating up on the streets with a few notable acts of violence popping up in the East Precinct scanner reports. We'll have to wait a few days to get more information on these from the Seattle Police Department's incident logs but wanted to get word out about the armed robbery, especially:

• Monday, 4:28PM  - E. Denny Way & E. Olive Way  - Strong Arm Robbery
  Person robbed on the street. Suspect is a white male, sunglasses, light blue shirt, shorts, last seen westbound.
• Today, 2:18PM  - 1525 11th Ave  - Assault
  Two males fighting outside Value Village. One sans shirt, one with tattoos, not clear which is lying in the street. Medics standing by. Update: Suspect is riding off on a bicycle. Victim is being carried off the street by others

We also checked into this ID fraud bust at Chase Bank on Broadway but SPD could not provide any additional information at this time. We'll be able to learn more when the report comes through later this week.

Follow the latest from the East Precinct...

Details are still thin but we're following up on this one because it sounds like a) the guy has a warrant and might be a bigger deal than your average Broadway identity fraudster and b) the name he allegedly was trying to use to con the bank was Remy Martin. Still gathering info but here's what we know from CDNews:

10:21AM  - 1429 Broadway  - Fraud - A man at Chase Bank is trying to use a stolen bank card to get a new one.Update: Police caught him - he was evidently a reasonably big fish. There was an open bulletin on him, and they arrested him on an outstanding warrant

That same Chase branch was targeted in a highly unsuccessful robbery attempt in July.