Texted taunts lead cops to Shoreline man

A Shoreline man landed in jail after apparently playing a texting game of cat and mouse with an Edmonds Police Department detective.

The story began just after midnight March 14 when the detective received a text message on his department-issued cellphone, Edmonds police Sgt. Mike Blackburn said.

The texter left a message asking, “Who is this?”

Since the detective did not recognize the telephone number, he sent a simple reply requesting the identity of the sender, Blackburn said.

During the next two days, the person sending the texts continued to exchange somewhat casual messages with the detective, apparently unaware of who was getting them, Blackburn said.

For some reason, on the third day the person sending the text sent a terse message with an expletive to the police detective. In it, he wrote: “Come get me…!”

The challenge was accepted.

The detective researched the telephone number and determined it belonged to a man well known to Edmonds police.

The Shoreline man, 29, had two outstanding felony warrants for his arrest.

“The detective obliged the man and went to get him,” Blackburn said. “The criminal’s texting has now been placed on hold while he spends time at the Snohomish County Jail.”