SEATTLE — A determined burglar did some serious damage just breaking into Northgate Mall over the weekend. It happened at about 4:30 in the morning Saturday. According to police reports, the thief used a bar of some kind to pry open the doors of Northgate Mall. He then broke into two stores locked up for the night. "These seem to be targeted items: personal electronics they were going after," Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt said.
KIRO 7 walked through the mall to check out the stores broken into. The T-Mobile kiosk is now repaired, but according to police reports the thief smashed open more than a dozen drawers. For some reason he didn't take anything inside.
KIRO 7 also went to the Best Buy Mobile store. Police said at Best Buy he pried open the bottom of a security gate, squeezed underneath, and grabbed as many tablets as they could get their hands on.
People who work inside the mall said after-hours smash and grabs are not that common because the mall is very secure at night and there are many security cameras. However, Witt said police are seldom surprised. "Suspects have time on their hands to sit around and figure out how to best commit these crimes," she said.
Witt said detectives do have pictures and video of the suspect, but said they likely are not ready to release them to the public because they're exploring other leads.