Kirkland police are searching for a man who stole five cars from the Infiniti of Kirkland on Wednesday.

At 3 a.m., the thief broke into the car dealership, stole the car keys and drove them to a commercial area in the 12500 block of NE 130th Lane.

“There were some janitors and nobody saw him,” said Kirkland police Lt. Mike Murray, adding that security also failed to notice him. “The keys were laying on the desk in the work area and he found which keys belonged to the cars.”

A Mercedes Benz and four Infinities were stolen.

Later at 11 p.m., the suspect returned to the scene but tripped a burglary alarm. The responding officer saw the man sitting in the Mercedes and ran the license plate, identifying the stolen vehicle.

The suspect took off toward the Kingsgate/Evergreen Hill area but as officers followed, he turned off his head lights so the officers discontinued the pursuit for safety reasons, Murray said.

Officers found the man heading toward Woodinville when he crashed the Mercedes at the Sammamish River Slough embankment near McCorry’s.

“He bailed out of the car and jumped into the slough,” Murray said. “We set up a perimeter but we couldn’t track him and he got away.”

But the man was caught on tape from the surveillance footage and detectives say they recognize him.

All cars were recovered and the Mercedes is the only one with damage.

The Reporter will update this story as more information becomes available.