Bellevue Police Arrest Five, Recover Four Stolen Cars Following Overnight Crime Spree

This morning at 2:50 a.m., Bellevue Police responded to the Hampton Greens Apartment complex, located in the 4700 block of 148th Avenue NE. An observant resident called to report what appeared to be several individuals attempting to steal vehicles in the parking lot. Bellevue Police Officers, along with a Kirkland Police K-9 unit, arrived and located a Kia van that had been abandoned and left running in the parking lot. Officers learned that the van had been reported stolen in Tacoma.

Shortly thereafter, Officers located and attempted to contact the involved individuals, who were driving through the parking lot of the complex in three different vehicles, a Kia and two Hyundai’s. All three drivers fled into the complex, with one driver hitting a parked car in the process. Police formulated a plan to lay spike strips at the only entrance to the complex. The suspects soon came back out toward the entrance, now in the two Hyundais. One of the suspects intentionally rammed into an occupied Kirkland K-9 Officer’s vehicle during their attempt to escape.

After a short foot chase, Officers arrested the 17-year-old passenger of the vehicle that had rammed the Officer’s car, and the 20-year-old driver of that vehicle was located and arrested after a short foot chase and K-9 track.

Spikes strips were used to flatten the tires of the second vehicle that fled the scene, and Officers, with the assistance of a K-9 unit, arrested three additional individuals that had fled on foot from that vehicle. Those individuals were 13, 15, and 16 years of age. Two of them had been reported as runaway juveniles. Two additional suspects fled on foot and police are working to identify them.

Police later discovered that all four involved vehicles had been reported as stolen. Bellevue Police continue to urge owners of Kia and Hyundai vehicles to use a steering wheel lock or alarm with immobilizer to prevent thefts.