Ballard police

Shoplifter brings child with him

When a man entered a Ballard grocery store with a four-year-old girl, he was not there to buy her ice cream. He filled a shopping cart full of merchandise and then headed for the door without paying. When he was stopped by store security, the man said he was not leaving and had more things to buy. Minutes after putting meat into the cart he tried to leave again and was detained. The suspect told the little girl to run. He then followed her to a Dodge van and left. Police officers found the van nearby with the girl inside. The suspect was taken into custody, positively identified and was taken to police headquarters. The girl was released to her mother.

In a fighting mood

It was 2 a.m. when a fight started in a Greenwood bar. Officers arrived and announced on the patrol car's speaker system "stop fighting and get on the ground," but the action did not end. Two police officers jumped on one suspect and put him on the ground but he kept flailing his arms and trying to hit back. After he was handcuffed, officers interviewed the other people involved and none would cooperate. The handcuffed man was taken to jail.

Car doors thwart bad guys

Leaving her north Seattle home for work at 6:50 a.m., a woman backed her truck out of the driveway. She noticed two men come out from behind some bushes. One tried to open her passenger door as the other approached the driver's side, but both doors were locked. Neither suspect said a word and the woman managed to drive off. She told police she was afraid they were there break into her house.

Unwelcome visitor jailed

Officers were called to a diner when an unwanted customer kept coming back after being told not to. His harassment of employees and patrons caused the banishment. This particular morning the suspect came and started banging on the windows. He then took out some bongo drums and began beating it. Officers found the suspect highly intoxicated. "He yelled loudly and demanded that he be arrested, beaten or shot by officers because he was not going to move from in front of the cafe," the report stated. The suspect spent the night in the King County jail.

Big truck, small garage

The 2006 Ford 250 Super Duty pickup truck barely fit in the garage and did not belong there. The owner took police officers to the garage where the truck was up on two cinder blocks and a jack stand. The house was vacant and a sale was pending. An employee of a company handling the sale had found the truck and did not know who it belonged to. "The truck was barely able to fit in the garage, even parked diagonally and there were only inches to spare between the rear bumper, garage wall and cab roof...," the report said. It took a tow truck company 90 minutes to extract the truck from the garage.

Litter fight

Two men from the eastside were treated rudely when visiting the big city on a recent weekend. They were walking down the street, drinking soda. One of them tried to throw his cup in a garbage can and missed. Just then a tattooed man began yelling about littering and some words were exchanged. The eastsiders tried to disengage from the situation, but the suspect threw a cup of liquid at them. They told police the suspect was wearing a Seattle Seahawks beanie cap.

Graffiti targets scooter

The owner of a scooter found it had been vandalized by taggers while parked next to her apartment. The tagger used a black marker to do his graffiti, pushed the scooter over, then let the air out of the tires. The owner told police this was an ongoing problem. A few weeks ago she found a piece of metal jammed into the ignition.

Dean Wong assembles this article from official Seattle Police reports.