Apartment building’s owner sounds off on creepy thief breaking into her resident’s homes
WANTED IN SEATTLE -- Seattle police need your help identifying this burglar. He broke into a family's apartment while they were sleeping to steal a laptop and two backpacks. Surveillance video shows the thief climbing over the railing of a parking garage in the lower Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. He loiters around so you get a good look at him. From there he was able to get onto a 4th floor apartment balcony and then cut through a window screen to get into an apartment, while the people inside were asleep.
"Clearly they were unsettled," said Kathryn Carlstrom, the building’s owner and manager. “Well, normally you wouldn't think that if you live up in a building several stories high that you'd have to worry too much about your doors and windows being locked and shut and bolted." She says they immediately changed all the keys and are warning residents to take some simple safety measures.
Ret. Detective Myrle Carner with Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound said the thief has probably done this before. "Chances are he's doing this in more than one case." Carner says the suspect has a distinguishing behavior that might help you identify him. "We kind of jokingly call him the nose picking bandit because it appears like that's exactly what he's doing,” Carner says. “A disgusting habit but it also may be kind of his calling card so to speak so if you see somebody hanging around your apartment doing this you better call for help." Carlstrom is encouraging tenants to make sure their sliding glass doors are secured and blocked so they can't be opened, giving this crook no more chances to break-in. “We're lucky that it wasn't a worse situation,” she said. “So we would like this person to be apprehended. it was pretty brazen, obviously he was willing to go to some length to be able to break into a unit."
That's just creepy, a guy like this sneaking around in your home...he's lucky he didn't get shot or have his head smashed in with a baseball bat. If you can tell Seattle police who this burglar is, call an anonymous tip into: CRIME STOPPERS: 1-800-222-TIPS You must call the Crime Stoppers hotline with your tip to be eligible to receive a cash reward for information leading to a fugitive’s arrest. Click here for information on how to text a tip to Crime Stoppers.