One person was taken into custody and at least one more apparently made a getaway as Seattle Police and a K9 unit searched for suspected burglars in a Capitol HIll school break-in overnight in a cat and mouse chase through the shuttered campus buildings that lasted hours.

According to East Precenti radio, alarms were first tripped around 1:50 AM at Bellevue Ave’s Northwest School. Security video from inside the school showed at least one suspect wearing a light colored hooded top.

As police arrived, a second report of another person inside the school wearing what appeared to be a dark green jacket came in.

Police set up a perimeter around the school campus just off E Pike as multiple sightings of possible suspects inside the building were reported and alarms continued to be tripped.

With a K9 unit arriving, police entered the multiple story buildings around 3 AM and began a floor by floor search. One person described as a young male was taken into custody around 3:30 AM according to radio dispatch updates.

A search for the possible second suspect was unsuccessful. One witness reported seeing a possible suspect leap from a lower roof of the building early in the hours-long search.

Police left the scene around 4 AM.

CHS reported a spike in commercial burglaries reported around the East Precinct in March.

UPDATE: Sounds like the suspect taken into custody didn’t make things easy for officers:

After scouring the whole building without finding the suspect, K9 Pele and Officer TJ San Miguel headed toward the basement, where Pele began barking at a door. Officers opened it to find a barricade of boxes. As Pele continued to bark, indicating a suspect was inside the room, officers kicked aside the boxes and discovered a sheen of vegetable oil, which the suspect had apparently dumped all over the floor of the room.

Police say the 24-year-old was taken into custody after officers made their way across the slick floor toward the suspect, who came out of hiding and surrendered. Police recovered a bag of change and some computer parts ripped off in the break-in. The suspect was booked for investigation of burglary.

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