Hilarious Costco thieves busted

Two thieves burst through the emergency exit of the SoDo Costco carrying armloads of stolen laptops and vacuums Wednesday afternoon, only to spot a group of officers standing between them and their getaway driver.

On March 14th, at about 5:30 pm, South Precinct officers responded to a call of a shoplift in progress at the Costco. Loss Prevention officers inside the store recognized one of the suspects inside and said he had previously stolen items in the past and run out the fire exit. According to the security personnel, the suspect had carried a large knife in past incidents.

Officers responded to the store and located a black Toyota occupied by a female driver, backed up to a set of emergency doors. The officers pulled their patrol vehicle in front of the Toyota to prevent it from leaving and contacted the 18-year-old woman.

As police were interviewing the woman in the car, officers standing at the emergency exit could hear someone attempting to open the doors.

Moments later, two suspects, a 30-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman opened the emergency doors and attempted to walk out of the store carrying stolen computers and vacuum cleaners.

Officers quickly detained the two suspects, much to their surprise. According to the Loss Prevention staff, the same group was suspected of stealing a similar amount of merchandise from another Costco earlier that day. The total value of items was $2,200.

Officers located a 7″ fixed blade from the male suspect. A detective from the Major Crimes Task Force interviewed the suspects and will handle the follow up investigation.

The male suspect was later booked into the King County Jail for investigation of robbery, while the two women were booked for investigation of theft.