Distinct tattoo on ear leads to arrest

Published 7:08 pm Monday, November 28, 2011

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The lanky suspect with hazel eyes wore a black jacket, blue jeans and cowboy boots.

It was his left ear lobe, however, that eventually led to his arrest for investigation of making a bomb threat, kidnapping and attempted robbery at a Mountlake Terrace supermarket Nov. 14.

The suspect, 56, was described as having a distinctive Nazi-style tattoo of two Ss shaped like lightning bolts on his ear.

“Those lightning bolt tattoos made a difference,” Mountlake Terrace police Cmdr. Doug Hansen said.

Detectives used witness accounts and store video footage to identify the suspect.

The man was arrested in Everett on Nov. 22, eight days after store workers reported an attempted robbery at a QFC at 22803 Cedar Way S. in Mountlake Terrace.

Witnesses told police that the man carried a black bag and asked a store clerk to see a manager.

He allegedly handed the manager a folded greeting card with the message: “I have a bomb don’t do anything stupid.”

He then directed the manager to take him upstairs to a safe.

While walking down a shopping aisle decked out with holiday items, the man apparently got cold feet. Halfway down, he turned, walked away and left the store.

At the police station, officers talked about the man with his ear marked with an SS tattoo. The symbol was made infamous by the Schutzstaffel, a corps formed during Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, and since appropriated by white supremacists.

An officer recognized the tattoo description from prior contacts with the suspect and came up with a name.

The suspect remains in the Snohomish County Jail on $25,000 bail.

The suspect has extensive criminal history, including a 1980 armed robbery conviction in Pennsylvania.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.