In brief: Jewelry thief hits Macy’s

A burglar smashed two sets of glass doors at the downtown Macy’s early Saturday morning, fleeing with merchandise from the fine jewelry department.

The burglar broke into the skywalk entrance on the corner of Main and Howard Street, then into the Macy’s entrance nearby, said Detective Lydia Taylor with the Spokane Police Department.

The skywalk door has since been boarded up.

The burglar stole an undisclosed number of watches at the fine jewelry counter, which is located to the left of the Macy’s entrance, Taylor said.

The suspect is described as an adult male, 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall, of medium build with a dark hooded sweatshirt with a white insignia on the front.

He was wearing a small backpack, dark jeans, black shoes or boots, and black, red and white gloves.

The case is unrelated to robberies at other local businesses in the last two weeks, Taylor said.

Macy’s representatives declined to comment Wednesday.

Kaitlin Gillespie

Passenger dies in rollover

An SUV driven by a Spokane man struck an embankment and flipped several times on a state highway near Lake Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday morning, killing one occupant and injuring four others, all of whom were not wearing seat belts.

The crash occurred just after 5 a.m. near mile marker 6.1 on State Highway 5 in Heyburn State Park, according to a news release from the Idaho State Police. Ronnie Quintana, 27, was trying to round a turn in the road when he crossed the center line and hit an embankment, which caused the vehicle to flip. Quintana was thrown from the vehicle. Passenger Jamie Kirkland Rivera, 33, of St. Maries, Idaho, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Quintana and 26-year-old Mary Zurcher Christian, of Tensed, Idaho, were taken to Kootenai County Medical Center, where they were in fair condition Wednesday night.

Two other passengers were transported to Benewah Community Hospital.

The highway was closed for five hours following the incident.

Kip Hill

Pizzeria ATM stolen, found

Burglars stole an automatic teller machine from a Spokane Valley restaurant early Wednesday morning.

Spokane Valley sheriff’s deputies responded to a burglary alarm at about 1:52 a.m. Wednesday morning at Savageland Pizza on 700 S. Dishman Road, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The door had been pulled open and the ATM pulled off its supports.

The machine was found at 11 a.m. Wednesday morning in the bed of a stolen pickup truck near Knox and Nora Avenue in Spokane Valley.

The ATM is valued at about $2,000, and police didn’t yet know how much money was inside the machine. Deputy Craig Chamberlin said the suspects did not take anything else from the restaurant.

“Obviously they’ve been in there before,” Chamberlin said.

“They just went directly to the ATM machine and pried it out of the floor.”

Surveillance footage from the restaurant is too dark to identify the suspects, Chamberlin said.

Kaitlin Gillespie