Seattle business broken into three times during opening weekend

A business in North Seattle experienced three burglaries during its opening weekend after moving to a new location. Bill Lilleness, owner of Best Plumbing, joined the Dori Monson Show to discuss the experience and his concerns over crime in Seattle.

The company has been in business for over 50 years and just moved into its new location in North Seattle.

“It wasn’t even the first day. It was literally when we opened the door and saw that all of our computers were stolen, amongst other things, that we realized we had a burglary … We moved over on a Saturday morning, worked all day Saturday so that we could come in in the morning, flip the lights on, flip the computers on and start work, and Sunday night they had ransacked the place and stolen quite a bit of merchandise that prevented us from really operating what we expected to do during that day,” he said.

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Through looking at security footage it appeared evident that the burglars had been casing the store. It was discovered that they initially used a master default code to bypass the security system, a code which the security company was supposed to change upon installation.

“We hired a contractor to install it, and they installed a great system. But they failed to change the default master code that allows anybody to come in and reprogram access codes from the externally mounted box … It’s unfortunate that there was negligence.”

Word apparently spread because a different set of criminals returned later to rob the store.

“We had people come back at around 4 in the morning. They stole some TV sets, walked out the front door … We ended up hiring an off-duty policeman who carried a gun. And that night he was watching the video cameras, and sure enough, another person broke in using similar access. Our security company still hadn’t changed the code,” he said.

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“Anyway, the cops came and arrested them … My primary question for them was: ‘Is this guy going to be on the streets in six hours? And they go, ‘Probably eight hours.’ I see it, I hear it a lot. But when it happens to you, it’s just bewildering that the city will not prosecute burglars.”

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.