Cigarette thief may be involved in pack of burglaries
Spokane Valley Police may have found the person responsible for several break-ins during the last few months on Trent Avenue.
Police arrested a 17-year-old male after Sgt. Mike Kittilstved saw someone break into Harvest Foods at 14515 E. Trent Ave. about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. The suspect walked out of the business with five cartons of cigarettes.
The store manager later arrived and said he did not know the young man and hadn’t given him permission to be in the store. A cigarette display rack inside the store was damaged and is estimated to cost $400.
The suspect was booked into the Spokane County Juvenile Detention center on a felony count of second-degree burglary. Property crimes detectives will investigate to see if the same teen was involved in other East Trent burglaries.
Arrest was in the cards
Two men trying to get cash for stolen sports cards inadvertently put them right back where they belonged, and got arrested in the process.
Dennis Weatherwax, 19, and William Newman, 18, tried to sell a few boxes of hockey cards to Sports Cards Northwest about 1:50 p.m. Saturday when a regular customer at the store noticed some of the cards had his own handwriting on their cases. The customer remembered that he had been trying to sell the cards on eBay for a friend who was out of state.
The customer, knowing the cards had to be stolen, called Spokane Valley Police, who arrived and arrested the two men. After investigating further, police found the suspects had stolen boxes of sports cards as well as a Sony Playstation II console and various games from the customer’s friend’s house.
The cards were worth $8,000 to $10,000.
Both Weatherwax and Newman were booked into the Spokane County Jail, each on a count of residential burglary and first-degree theft, as well as two counts of first-degree trafficking stolen property.
ID theft suspect arrested
A woman was arrested on multiple charges after Spokane Valley Police pulled her over near Second and Thor and found fake documents and stolen paychecks.
Police stopped Robin Marie Griffith, 42, Sunday night for having an incorrectly attached license plate on her car. Police then found she had a suspended driver’s license, so they arrested her.
After searching Griffith’s car, police found someone else’s checkbook as well as a loose check for $500 with no payee. Officers also found a fake ID card that had Griffith’s photo, but the name was the same as that on the stolen checks.
The checkbook owners said their home had been burglarized early Sunday and the checkbook had been stolen.
Griffith was booked into the Spokane County Jail on felony counts of forgery, second-degree possession of stolen property and identity theft. She was also charged with third-degree driving while license suspended, and written two citations for switched license plates and failure to provide proof of insurance.