King County deputies arrested two adult males and one adult female for possession of stolen property and identity theft on Oct. 30. The arrests came after an alert citizen called in about a suspicious vehicle in one of the Marymoor Park parking lots. A Sammamish detective had developed probable cause for the arrest of occupants of a silver Kia Sedona van, and when deputies arrived at the park they found that was the suspicious vehicle the citizen had called about.

The following day detectives with our contract city of Sammamish served a search warrant on the suspect vehicle, recovering evidence linking the three suspects to more car prowls and identity theft. Yesterday, detectives served a search warrant on a storage unit belonging to one of the suspects. More evidence linking the suspects to additional victims was located.

It is believed these suspects are responsible for a rash of car prowls and identity theft cases going back at least to July of this year. The suspects would break into cars, take valuables to resell, use ATMs to withdraw cash, and also quickly buy gift cards until the victims bank accounts were emptied.

At this point, detectives with the King County Sheriff’s Office and Sammamish detectives have linked these suspects to what will probably be over 30 cases. Some of these car prowls occurred in the city of Seattle, and many of the identity thefts happened in Redmond, Mercer Island and other jurisdictions throughout King County.

As of this afternoon, detectives have recommended charges against each suspect on four of the cases, with at least five more cases to be referred soon. Detectives continue to work to identify and contact more victims of this group. It’s expected there will be more charges filed in the coming weeks.