LAKE STEVENS — A man and woman arrested Wednesday in Lake Stevens could be responsible for a string of recent robberies around Snohomish County.
Police caught up with them after a robber hit two espresso stands Wednesday morning, one in the 800 block of Frontage Road, the other at the Tom Thumb Grocery in the 1900 block of South Lake Stevens Road.
A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy heard a dispatcher’s description of a green pickup that matched a vehicle that was involved in an espresso stand robbery in Snohomish on Sept. 16. The same deputy had put out an “Attempt to Locate” flier describing the vehicle after the Snohomish robbery.
On Wednesday morning, the deputy pulled the vehicle over and reported that a woman, 23, was driving and a man, 28, was trying to hide in the back seat.
A barista from the espresso stand on Frontage Street identified the man as the assailant who attempted to rob her, court papers said. She said she initially believed he was joking, but saw a knife blade protruding from his sleeve.
Instead of giving him money, she called the police and he walked away, court papers said.
When police brought the suspect by the barista, she asked that they have the man turn around. She said she also recognized him because of the distinctive “pointy” back pockets of the jeans he was wearing.
The suspects were booked for investigation of first-degree robbery and attempted first-degree robbery in connection with the Lake Stevens cases. Bail was set at $75,000 each in Everett District Court on Thursday.
The woman suspect told a Snohomish detective that she drove during the robberies in Lake Stevens on Wednesday and during several more throughout the county in recent weeks, according to court papers.
She told the detective that she and her accomplice are heavy drug users and would get sick if they didn’t get money to buy drugs.
They also are suspects in a pet store robbery in Lake Stevens.
Detectives in Everett also are investigating the suspects, Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.
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