Magnolia burglary victims accuse Seattle police of not showing up in OfferUp sting

SEATTLE — Thieves stole more than $10,000 worth of property from a home in Magnolia that's being renovated, including tools from the contractor and electronics.

The victims found their stuff on Offerup.com.

They claim the Seattle Police Department recommended they set up a meet up with the sellers, and an officer would be there for the sting. But say police never showed up – putting them in a potentially dangerous position.

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​A spokesperson with the SPD said there must have been some miscommunication, because that recommendation is against department policy.

It all has the victims incredibly frustrated by this situation.

Burglars climbed a ladder to get inside a bathroom window. In the tub, you can still see the suspect's footprints.

"Someone had broken into the house and had pretty much stolen all of our tools and electronics," said Sara Wise, the homeowner. "It's tens of thousands of dollars."

The burglar also stole tools from the general contractor, Tim Tanner.

"I was angry," Tanner said.

After they called police, they found a lot of their stolen stuff on the site Offerup.com sold by an account called "Boch" that was set up in July of this year.

"Every single thing on this list was stolen from this house," Tanner said.

"There was kind of a panic of 'wow is this really real?'" Wise said.

Wise said she called Seattle police again.

"They said we can't use that profile and go after them directly. You need to set up meets to try and buy back your stuff anonymously, and we will meet you there," Wise said.

"And they told you that- 'we will meet you there?'" KIRO7's Deedee Sun asked Wise.

"Yeah. So that's what we did," Wise said.

They decided Tanner would meet the seller at the QFC in Wallingford.

He said he called police again and gave plenty of heads-up, as instructed.

"At 2:45 p.m. I set up a meeting with this guy to buy tools back," Tanner said. "They said if you meet the cops about a block away, they'll work it out with you."

But the time came and went and no officers arrived.

"I was just nervous, you know? About possibly confronting somebody by myself," Tanner said.

"We were in a dangerous position at that point," Wise said. "Who knows what could have happened."

They say luckily the seller also didn't show.

And Tanner says after about half an hour, dispatch called him. "And they apologized and said they've been busy and they couldn't make it," Tanner said.

KIRO7's Deedee Sun asked the Seattle Police Department what happened in this case.

"It sounds like a miscommunication to me because we've changed our practices in recent years where that's not a recommended course of action. It's simply not worth someone getting hurt. Furthermore, it puts crime victims needlessly at risk," said Sean Whitcomb, a SPD spokesperson.

Whitcomb said there was a practice of having victims help set up stings in the past, but since 2016 the department has discouraged it.

Wise said she knows what she was told.

"We absolutely would not have done it if they hadn't suggested it," she said. "I have to say, they then need to do better training with their people to not suggest it."

"If this crime victim and contractor felt like they were misled, I certainly apologize on behalf of the organization. We don't want that. We want crime victims to feel served and more than that, we want the things that were stolen from them returned to them, and the people who took them held accountable," Whitcomb said.

Wise said the burglars also left used Q-tips and cigarette butts in the house, and even left solid waste in the toilet.

"It was just a big screw you to us," Wise said. "To do gross things in the house and leave them. People who have no respect for other people or other people's property. It would have been nice to have caught them," she said.

KIRO7 did find examples on SPD's own website of stings apparently set up by theft victims after 2016 – one as recently as March.

KIRO7 also covered a case of a theft victim setting up a sting in November of 2017. 

SPD said officers or detectives could have been behind initiating the stings, which are still common practice.

If your stuff is stolen, police encourage you to look for the stolen items online and tell officers. But they advise against setting up a meeting.

Cox Media Group