The trend of packages being taken from the front doorsteps of Issaquah residents looks to be connected to an entire chain of crimes on the Eastside.
According to information from Bellevue Police, packages have been stolen from addresses in Bellevue, Redmond and Issaquah over the past year, including thefts on July 7, April 22 and Jan. 21 in Bellevue, and July 12 in Redmond. Bellevue Police Public Information Officer Seth Tyler said that it is “quite likely” that one single suspect, who was captured on camera on during the April 22 theft, is responsible for the crimes.
The suspect is described as a clean-shaven white male in his 30s with short, dark hair. He drives a four-door black Volvo 850 sedan from the mid-1990s, which is recognizable for having a spoiler on the back and five spokes on its wheels.
The alleged thief is becoming something of an infamous criminal in the Puget Sound; on Sept. 5, the television show Washington’s Most Wanted uploaded the footage of the package theft to its Facebook page.
Bellevue resident Frieda Chan captured the footage on her home surveillance system after the suspect stole two packages of climbing equipment worth $50 from her house on Southeast 60th Street in Bellevue — not far from where the empty boxes from Issaquah’s Cougar Mountain doorstep thefts were dumped on Aug. 13.
Issaquah resident Lauren Steele, who lost two care packages of family keepsakes in the Aug. 13 thefts, said that she and her neighbors believe the thief was following closely behind the postal carriers and stalking houses, due to the swiftness with which the packages were stolen from her Northwest Pine Cone Drive home after being delivered.
And indeed, the images in Chan’s video point to this being the case. In the footage, the Volvo can clearly be seen pulling up shortly after the departure of the USPS worker. After circling the neighborhood at a slow speed, the suspect drives up a second time, parks across the street from Chan’s house, and comes to the door.
“It is quite possible he’s following letter carriers,” Tyler stated, pointing to Chan’s footage as evidence.
Issaquah Postmaster Eric Stanley disagreed, however, noting that it would be difficult for a thief to stay behind the mail trucks as they are “twisting and turning” up hilly roads like the one that leads to Steele’s residence.
“I don’t think somebody is going to be bumper-to-bumper [with a USPS vehicle],” he said.
One likely reason that the suspect has been so successful in his Eastside crimes is that he assumes a convincing disguise of a delivery person. In the footage, he walks up to Chan’s doorstep carrying a clipboard and two fake packages.
“He looks absolutely legit … because of that clipboard and fake packages,” Chan said.
Chan said that her neighbors had been hosting an open house at the time of the theft, but noted that the disguise would have allowed the suspect to pass freely in front of neighbors and onto private property. If the suspect committed the Cougar Mountain thefts using the same technique, then this deceptive staging may help explain how Steele’s packages were stolen from her long, shared driveway in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon.
“I think he’s super bold,” Chan said.
Chan posted an alert and description of the crime on NextDoor; Bellevue residents were quick to link the suspect to other previous incidents of thievery in the area, including the package theft on Southeast 51st Street in Bellevue on Jan. 21.
After the January crime, NextDoor users came forward saying that they, too, had been hit by the crook, or that they had seen him around various residential locations in the Bellevue-Issaquah area. One Cougar Mountain resident reported seeing the suspect going door-to-door on her street on Jan. 29, and another person claimed to have seen him at the Factoria Safeway on Jan. 31.
“What we need is for someone to get a license plate and call Crime Stoppers,” Tyler said. “We’re hoping someone sees him and recognizes him.”
In October 2015, one resident did write down the license plate number of what she believed to be the suspect’s car. However, when police ran the plate, no results turned up. Tyler said that either she hadn’t seen the correct number, or the plate is not from Washington.
Besides keeping an eye out for the suspected package bandit, Issaquah residents believe that the thefts could easily be prevented in the first place if USPS, Fed Ex and UPS carriers would simply make sure to ring doorbells. Steele, who was upstairs in her home at the time her packages were delivered and stolen, said that she would have retrieved them from the front door right away if the delivery person had bothered to alert her.
“It’s a big problem … they don’t ring doorbells now,” said Steele, who has noticed this with several deliveries. “I would be happy to have my doorbell rung and my kids woken up if it means I’m not going to have my things stolen.”
Cougar Mountain resident Sally Lindberg observed that within the span of one week, she had four different instances of packages being delivered — twice from FedEx, once from UPS and once from USPS — without receiving so much as a knock for any of them. The FedEx delivery on Aug. 24 contained $600 worth of golf clubs.
“It should be a standard that all [delivery] people ring the doorbell,” Lindberg said. “It’ll take all of about one second.”
Stanley said that all postal carriers from his office are trained to ring doorbells.
“Generally carriers do ring the doorbell or knock,” Stanley said. “They don’t leave with no notification.”
Chan said that the postal workers in Bellevue have always been great about notifying residents of deliveries.
She did say that she hopes that in particular gas stations in the area will keep an eye out for the suspect, since his frequent tours of the Eastside likely cause him to refuel often.
Police advise anyone who has any information about the suspect, or who thinks they have seen the suspect or his car, to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of this longtime thief.
