Car prowl ring feeling the heat with two more suspects picked off
Jul 21, 2017, 5:40 AM
Another day, another bust as Bellevue police strike back at a massive car prowl ring that targets vehicles parked at trailheads and public parks.
Nearly 150 break-ins have been documented with monetary losses from credit card fraud and monetary theft now estimated at $200,000.
“The word has spread that this is an easy way to make money, so they’re out just pillaging the Eastside,” said Captain Marcia Harnden with Bellevue Police.
With the latest arrests, the tide is turning.
SWAT teams from Bellevue and Seattle surrounded a townhouse in the High Point development in West Seattle around noon Thursday, trapping two members of the group inside the residence.
The suspects, a 24-year-old man with a felony record and 20-year-old woman holed up and refused to come outside. Harnden says, “based on his criminal history and the issues we’ve had with violence and firearms with these folks,” SWAT teams were prepared for anything.
Luckily, a family member of one of the individuals showed up at the scene and convinced the pair to turn themselves in and face arrest peacefully. No use of force was needed.
Thirteen car prowl suspects have now been cuffed with roughly 40 more on law enforcement radar.
Since each case requires probable cause and a warrant, police can’t sweep up everyone immediately. Many still need to be identified from surveillance footage and then located. Captain Harnden notes, “these people don’t keep current addresses on their driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations, so we have done some good old-fashioned police work to figure out where to find them.”
However, with police tightening the net, Captain Harnden says communications monitoring finds the car prowl suspects feeling like “the whole world is coming after them.”
Officers from Bellevue, Sammamish, Issaquah, Redmond, and Kirkland are working in partnership on the months-long effort. Some officers have worked up to 30 days in a row to secure evidence and bring the criminals to justice.
The investigation is dubbed Operation Radcliffe to honor the memory of Moises Radcliffe, the son of a Seattle police officer who was run over and killed during a confrontation with prowlers connected to the group at Beaver Lake Park in January.
The gang unit from the Seattle Police Department is also assisting in the investigation and arrests.
