KENT, Wash. — Four people were arrested Sunday night after police said they tried to steal a large amount of clothing from a Kent retail store.
Kent police officers responded to the store at around 10:50 p.m. Sunday, August 9, after an employee called 911 to report four suspects grabbing merchandise and stuffing it into bags and shopping carts.
According to police, a 29-year-old woman from Tacoma walked out of the store carrying a pile of clothing. Upon seeing officers in the parking lot, she dropped the clothing and tried to walk away before complying with officers’ commands.
A second suspect, a 24-year-old woman from Tacoma, exited through the first set of glass doors without paying. Seeing officers outside, she turned back inside and began dumping unpaid items out of her purse onto the floor in an attempt to avoid arrest.
The remaining two suspects, a 40-year-old woman from Tacoma and a 27-year-old man from Lakewood, had also passed all points of sale with stolen clothing. After watching their companions get detained, they dropped their merchandise near a store counter.
Although the suspects initially denied knowing each other, one later told police that they had all arrived together in the same vehicle. Officers found drug paraphernalia inside the vehicle, and one suspect indicated more drugs were likely inside. Police had the vehicle towed pending a search warrant.
All four suspects were detained.
Two of the suspects had outstanding warrants and were booked into the SCORE jail facility. Because of the volume of clothing involved, the case was turned over to detectives to complete the investigation.