SNOHOMISH- Sheriff’s Office Looks for Groper Suspect

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a suspect who groped an eleven year old girl at the Snohomish Fred Meyer.

The man allegedly offered the girl alcohol as he put a hand down the girl’s back pocket. A store employee intervened and the man walked away.

If you have information that can lead to the arrest of this suspect, please call 911 and ask to talk to a deputy or call the Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at (425) 388-3845.

To see video of the suspect go to the following link:

 

KIRO TV-

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/police-girl-groped-busy-store/ndC9P/

 

FRAUD TACTICS- Moving from the Internet to the Phone

FRAUD TACTICS- Moving from the Internet to the Phone

According to an article in the New York Times, “Swindlers Use Telephones, With Internet Tactics”, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/technology/swindlers-use-telephones-with-internets-tactics.html?_r=0&referrer=, internet fraudsters are turning to the telephone to try to gather your personal information.

Over the past few years, local and national law enforcement agencies have been conducting an education campaign to warn citizens about clicking on links in emails that come from internet fraudsters. Many people now are more cautious when looking at emails from people or companies that they don’t know. But many people are not as aware of the pitfalls of giving personal information to strangers who call them on the phone.

A new technique has emerged where an employee of a large business or government agency might receive a call from someone claiming that the employee owes some sort of debt and if they do not pay up, the caller threatens to take down the phone lines at the employee’s workplace. If the employee refuses to cooperate, their workplace then experiences what amount to a denial of service attack with hundreds if not thousands of phone calls being place to the business’ or agencies’ phone lines tying them up.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaints of telephone calls asking or demanding personal information are up also. The FTC has said that complaints about telephone fraud were 34% of all fraud complaints in 2012, up from 20% in 2010.

As often happens with many criminals, fraudsters change their tactics as old techniques become less successful. Be wary of anyone who calls you asking for your personal information. If they do, hang up.

For more details, go to the New York Times article:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/technology/swindlers-use-telephones-with-internets-tactics.html?_r=0&referrer=

 

THE FALLS- Suspicious Activity

Yesterday morning, January 21, around 10am, an older, silver 4 door car with tinted windows parked in front of a house in the vicinity of 146th Pl. SE and 65th Dr. SE. A black male in his early 20's got out and knocked on the door. One occupant of the house noticed the car pull up to the house full of passengers and thought that this was suspicious. The other occupant, the son of the owners, answered the door by talking through the door. The male from the car asked for directions to I-5 then left.

What made this incident especially suspicious was that the son’s car had been stolen in Seattle over the weekend and the friend’s house he was visiting was broken into and ransacked. The son’s car was eventually found totaled. The family suspects that the people in the car in front of their house may have been involved in the Seattle car theft and burglary, obtaining their address from the registration or insurance papers.

While the tie to the car theft is speculation, crooks have been known to use the information from car registrations to conduct burglaries, especially when they know that the victim is going to be away from the house for a period of time. This family did things right. They made the potential tie with their stolen car. The son, instead of opening the door, talked through the door protecting himself and the family property. And the family did call 911.

 

MARTHA LAKE- Burglaries

On Friday, January 10, around 12:30pm a home was burglarized in the vicinity of East Shore Drive in the Martha Lake area. All of the homeowner’s jewelry was taken. The burglars smashed the glass in a door while the burglar alarm was sounding. The owner said that the burglars seemed to know where to look for the jewelry.

Martha Lake Neighborhood Watch members have noticed at least three suspicious people in the area that may be related to the burglary:

1. Two people, a man and woman, associated with a dark gray pickup truck, possibly a small Ford, with an extended cab and trailer hitch.  The woman was described as having shoulder length light brown hair. Both the man and woman appeared to be in their 30’s. The woman was also carrying a white bag/container. The victim noted that their white recycling container was missing.
2. A third person had been seen in the area multiple times. She was described as having blond hair and was between 16-20 years old. She would go around the neighborhood taking pictures of herself (a “selfie” in modern parlance) in front of homes. She was seen on a skateboard, by herself, but did not seem to be an accomplished skateboarder. She was seen in the area in the early morning hours (around 4:15am).

Note: From the description of the incident the burglar(s) probably did not stay long with the burglar alarm going off. They probably have some experience in conducting burglaries in that they made a beeline for the jewelry. Burglars know where most of us store our jewelry, so they just find those places in each home they enter. They also have a sense for where we usually store important documents and cash. A good reason to store these valuables in a hidden safe, bolted to the floor. Keeping your valuables, and guns, in a safe forces the burglar to take too much time to get to your stuff. They probably will pass it by even if they find it. BUT BE SURE TO BOLT IT TO THE FLOOR!

Also, burglars often take advantage of the things in our houses to haul off their loot. They will use your trash bags, waste containers, even your pillow cases. I don’t know of any practical way to avoid this. But, if you are victimized in a burglary, you might also make an inventory of your pillow cases (on your beds) trash containers, etc. If you are missing a pillow case, for example, you can give a description of it to the investigating deputy.

 

SNOHOMISH- Thieves Stealing RV Batteries

According to King 5 TV news, there have been several thefts of deep cycle batteries from travel trailers in the 900 block of 19^th Street and an attempted theft in the 1000 block early last week.

The theft of the batteries allow the thieves to get easy cash; from $5 to $45 for each battery core, according to Snohomish Police Chief John Flood.

RV’s, including travel trailers, 5^th wheels and motorhomes, can be targets for thieves especially if they are stored in isolated parts of your property or in a storage yard. When your RV is not in use and in storage, be sure to take the batteries from your RV to a secure place.

For more information about protecting your RV go to this previous posting on my blog:

http://ssnoccrimewatch.blogspot.com/search?q=RV

 

For more information about the battery thefts in Snohomish, go to:

KING 5 TV News:

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Snohomish-Police-thieves-targeting-RV-batteries-239717841.html

MUKILTEO- Two Women Call CPS to Help Abused Girl

On Sunday, December 22, The Herald published an article about two sales clerks who called Child Protective Services (CPS) when they saw a girl come into their department who looked gaunt and malnourished. (For details of the story, go to http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20131222/NEWS01/712229999).

The Herald story brings up two thoughts. First, crime can come in ways that you might not expect. You might think of crime in the sense of burglaries, assaults and robberies. But there are also crimes to people such as human trafficking or child abuse that may not have an obvious telltale sign that tips the average person off that something is wrong.

Second, it can take courage to call 911 or other authority when you see something suspicious or a crime in progress. The way the girl looked to the two women was obviously suspicious. But making the call did take courage. They had some apprehension that their suspicions might be wrong. There was also the childhood memories of one of the women when she was abused. While these were not concerns about retribution from a burglar or robber, the incident did bring up emotions and trauma from the past.  

This article does point out the importance of calling 911. In this case, the women’s call helped a child to leave an abusive situation. Your call to 911 can help someone else who might be in trouble.

SHERIFF’S OFFICE- Using Social Media to Catch Crooks

In a recent press release, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has pointed out three incidents where social media, YouTube specifically, has helped it to apprehend suspects in three crimes.
                                                                                                 

1. A November 5 case where suspects were seen on camera using stolen credit cards at the Seattle Premium Mall. After publishing the video on YouTube, the Sheriff’s Office received several tips that led to the apprehension of a 32 year-old Granite Falls man. The Sheriff’s Office is currently looking for 26 year-old Melissa Linder, who is believed to be the female in the video, for forgery, identity theft, and possession of stolen property (http://ssnoccrimewatch.blogspot.com/2013/11/granite-falls-burglars-show-their-stuff.html).
2. A November 6 incident when two brothers were caught on video stealing various items including guns and ammunition from a home. Within a day of the release of video on YouTube, the Sheriff’s Office received 25 tips that helped it to apprehend the older brother. This case has been referred to the Snohomish County Prosecutors Office with a recommendation of charges of first degree burglary (http://ssnoccrimewatch.blogspot.com/2013/11/snohomish-burglars-steal-from-snohomish.html).
3. The third incident occurred on November 9 when two men assaulted a cab driver and attempted to force him to withdraw cash from an ATM. Tips from the public helped to capture a 27 year-old black male. The Sheriff’s Office is still looking for white male suspect who was seen in the video. This suspect is known to hang out in the area of 164^th St near Lynnwood and is believed to live or have friends in the area (http://ssnoccrimewatch.blogspot.com/2013/12/lynnwood-sheriffs-office-looking-for.html)

Note: In these early years of social media, the Sheriff’s Office needs to explore ways to effectively use social media in order to enforce the law and prevent crime. The three examples above shows the efforts that the Sheriff’s Office is making to experiment with new technology. In each of the examples, the Sheriff’s Office was able to post the videos in a place where the public could easily see them (the Sheriff’s Office’s YouTube account is http://www.youtube.com/user/SnoCoSheriff) . It also used Twitter (@SnoCoSheriff) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Snohomish-County-Sheriffs-Office/179360692138012) as well as traditional media (TV, radio and newspapers) to advertise the video clips.

In addition, in each of the incidents, video was an important element in identifying the suspects and documenting their actions. It also demonstrates that tips from the public are important to enforcing the law and that the Sheriff’s Office takes the tips it receives very seriously.

Social media is an important tool for the Sheriff’s Office to communicate with the public. It leverages the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to communicate as well as giving it the capability to communicate rapidly. Social media provides several methods to contact the public which may become a challenge to manage by the Sheriff’s Office. But in using all available methods, the Sheriff’s Office can ensure the greatest coverage of important information.

We cannot know how the Sheriff’s Office will develop social media in the future as a tool to protect our society from crime. It is important that the Sheriff’s Office continue to use and to grow this new tool to the benefit of all of us.