SEATTLE — A robber's plot to hide wads of freshly stolen cash under piles of bricks was quickly foiled by Seattle police when an alert homeowner spotted two men stashing cash in his backyard.
Jeffrey Forde told KIRO-7 he heard the sound of people opening his gate and running into his backyard as he was putting his toddler to bed.
I
"I saw they had a big wad of cash and they looked like they were doing something behind my garage," Forde said. Forde says he believes the robbers picked his backyard completely at random.
As he called 911, Forde didn't know the money had just been taken by two armed robbers five blocks away, at the Valero food Mart, in the 3000 block of Beacon Ave. S.
Seattle police were examining store security video of the armed, masked robbers in action, spending two and a half minutes demanding cash from a terrified clerk, when Forde called 911.
Seattle police arrived at Forde's home just after the two suspects left. They collected the cash, found gloves, a coat with identification inside, and the getaway car from the robbery. After trying to track the suspects with dogs, police left Forde's yard.
Two hours later, when the two suspects returned, police did too, and both suspects were arrested. Police say a 31-year-old man is jailed, but a 19-year-old was released, pending further investigation.
Forde is a Brazilian martial arts instructor, who says he wasn't even tempted to tangle with the two suspects in this yard.
"Someone, anyone could be armed," he said. "I figured the police would be better off taking care of something like this."