A suspect in a Nov. 6 residential burglary in Edmonds has told police that his own living quarters were burglarized as he sat in jail overnight.
The 25-year-old Edmonds man told police he lost four bottles of prescription medications including one of Oxycontin, an air compressor, two nail guns, $740 in cash, an X-Box gaming system and $1,600 in X-Box games and DVDs.
There’s more.
While in jail, the man had a stroke, he told police officials. And the morning after being released from jail, he’d been hit by a car. He’d developed Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
He hadn’t sought any medical attention.
When police arrived at his home near Lake Ballinger to take a report, the suspect was sitting in a wheelchair. His hands shook uncontrollably, and he stuttered so violently that it was “very difficult to understand what he was trying to report,” according to police documents.
Difficult to understand and, just maybe, a little difficult to believe.
The officer who arrived to find the man stuttering, shaking and wheelchair-bound was the same officer who had arrested him — without any obvious ailments — a day earlier.
As the female officer questioned the suspect-turned-victim about the second, alleged burglary, she noticed that his symptoms were prone to disappearing entirely.
“Throughout this contact, I noticed that when (the suspect) was asked pointed questions that took thought, his hands would stop shaking and his normal speech returned for a short period of time,” the officer’s report said.
The man has not been charged with a crime for either the burglary or the burglary-report, so the Enterprise is not naming him. Creating a false report is a crime.
Both incidents are still being investigated, said Sgt. Don Anderson, spokesman for the Edmonds police department.
The second burglary allegedly happened while two of the suspect’s four roommates were home. The roommates told police officers they do not believe a burglary occurred, and they each said the suspect is a compulsive liar.
When the officer searched the suspect’s room, she noticed that it “was very organized for being so small and cluttered.”
“I then noticed that there was not enough space on the shelves to house 100 DVDs,” the officer wrote in her report. “(The suspect) then stated that, ‘When I got home my room was trashed, and everything had been thrown around.’ He then stated that he had cleaned his room and placed other items on the shelves where his DVDs were once stored.
“I thought that it was odd and highly unlikely that a victim of a burglary would clean up before the police arrived, therefore possibly destroying any evidence. Also, if (the suspect) was truly suffering from a stroke and Lou Gehrig’s Disease, I find it hard to believe that…he would have been physically able to tidy up his room on his own,” the officer wrote.
The suspect insisted he was not lying.
Nevertheless, the police officer’s report concludes: “Due to the totality of the circumstance and the lack of evidence that a crime occurred, I believe that this report is unfounded.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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