SEATTLE — 35-year-old Luke Thesing was arrested at his Northgate apartment Friday. Another man, Sam Harris, has also been arrested in connection with the crime.
Harris and Thesing allegedly stole wine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from a South Seattle store and then tried to burn the shop down.
Investigators now have reason to believe the men could be connected to a wine heist in San Francisco last Spring.
In March thieves broke into Fine Wines International in San Francisco. They took fine wine worth $100,000.
The theft was unsolved, the wine never found.
Detectives now think Luke Thesing and Sam Harris could be connected to that wine heist.
According to charging documents the pair contacted a man in San Francisco to try to sell wine from the Seattle theft. Police say that man admitted he bought wine worth $100,000 from Harris and another man last May.
Now investigators are working to see if the wine purchased was the same wine taken in that heist.
More recently, in the early morning hours of Nov. 29, two men broke into the wine shop Esquin. The shop is located the 2700 block of Fourth Avenue South. It contains 450 privately-rented wine storage lockers.
After the two men entered the shop, they started painting over security cameras.
Police believe those men are Sam Harris and Luke Thesing. Both men had rented a wine storage locker at Esquin in October, according to police.
Police said the two men spent 13 hours carting off more than 200 cases of wine, with an estimated value of $648,000, from the shop. After taking the wine, the two cut two gas lines in the store's ceiling and tried to set the building on fire.
The lines did not ignite, but the gas got into the shop and a neighboring store. A building manager smelled the gas later in the day and called 911.
Police, firefighters and gas technicians shut off the gas and cleared the building. The shop's staff discovered the store had been broken into.
After reviewing surveillance footage, the suspects had missed a camera. The camera footage showed two men, who had previously rented a storage unit at the shop. Staff gave police their names and contact information they used during the renting process.
On Monday Dec. 2, detectives went to Harris's South Seattle home and arrested him. Neighbors saw the SWAT team show up.
"There was a SWAT team with guns. It seemed pretty scary. We didn't know what was going on. We saw the guns out, we were really nervous," said neighbor Shawna Sherman.
She was surprised to find out Harris is accused of trying to start a fire after the burglary. "He seemed like a decent guy. It seems surprising that anybody would do that," added Sherman.
Harris was booked into the King County Jail for burglary and attempted arson. His bail is set at $500,000. Thesing was booked into the King County Jail early Saturday morning for burglary and arson, his bail is also $500,000.
KIRO
