Bellevue detectives connect smash and grab teen to crimes in four counties

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Bellevue detectives are describing how they caught a 17-year-old Kent teen who is charged with a list of crimes for breaking into local gun shops and pot shops in four counties.

They say the teen and the other suspects always wore masks and gloves, they didn't leave evidence behind, but they left a digital mark that helped police zero in on them.

In all of the burglaries they say he used a stolen car to ram the buildings to get inside.

The teen was arrested last month and so far detectives have linked him to the West Coast Armory burglary on Dec. 26, 2017, in Bellevue where 72 guns were stolen.

They say the same teen also broke into the Have a Heart pot shop in Bothell on Dec. 13, 2017.

Investigators say the teen also broke into the Skagit Shooting Range in Burlington. He didn't get any weapons there, because the guns were in locked cases overnight.

Detectives followed the teen for days and say he's a member of a local gang and he and his associates sold the guns.

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They recovered a video of the suspects showing off the guns to potential buyers on Snap Chat. So far five of the weapons have been recovered, three of them were discovered at crime scenes.

Bellevue police say the teen was getting ready to target a gun shop in Kitsap County. They had evidence he'd bought supplies he used in each burglary, but they arrested the teen before he could act.

The teen, who is charged as a juvenile, is in the Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle.

Cox Media Group