MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A burglar shot a dog with a pellet gun during a break-in at a Mountlake Terrace home, according to police.
The dog survived, but ran away yelping.
Earlier this month, officers took a report that someone had kicked in the front door of a home to steal jewelry overnight.
There were no suspects. However, the next day a woman showed up at a police station. She reported she felt bad about what had happened. She gave the following story to police, according to court papers.
The woman said she is a heroin addict. She’d been driving through neighborhoods with another addict, 31, to steal mail from homes. It was about 3 a.m. Nov. 2. At one point he told her he was going to do a “smash and grab.” He parked, smoked some crack-cocaine and went to knock on the door of a house. He heard a dog inside. So he returned to the car, grabbed a pellet gun and told the woman to roll down the window, so she could hear him if he needed her. He went back and kicked in the door. The dog came out. The man fired three shots. The dog ran off yelping down the street. Minutes later the man emerged from the house carrying boxes.
Inside of the boxes, he found jewelry and other valuables. They drove to Seattle, where another man helped to sell the jewelry to a metal recycling business for about $300. The woman wouldn’t make a written statement. She feared the man would “kill her,” according to a document filed in court Monday.
Police spoke with the victim of the burglary and urged him to have his dog examined. A veterinarian found a fresh wound near the dog’s shoulder. A pellet was lodged under the skin.
In late summer the burglary suspect had been arrested for investigation of stealing a gym bag from a home in Brier. An officer arrived at the scene, saw the car fleeing and chased it at 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. Over a two-mile pursuit, the car whizzed past oncoming traffic in a center turn lane and weaved around vehicles. He bailed from the car, charging papers say. Officers caught up to him. He was arrested, and he’s still awaiting trial in that case. He posted $25,000 bond in October.
Police arrested him Friday in downtown Everett in the new case, for investigation of burglary and first-degree animal cruelty.
Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard set bail at $20,000. A public defender, Pooja Vaddadi, told the judge Monday that the man is an electrician, and a father of two children, ages 5 and 9.
No charges have been filed.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.