Early on December 4th, Snoqualmie and North Bend Officers responded to the area of 9800 Railroad Ave SE for a Suspicious Vehicle complaint. A white van was parked outside the designated parking area in the elk meadows. Officers arrived and contacted an adult male near the van.
The male was detained for the investigation based on ongoing cable thefts from the area and that specific van having been seen in the location before. As the investigation continued, a second male was hiding in the brush nearby with two backpacks, bolt cutters, and wire loppers just a few steps away.
Near the van were stacks of cut cables waiting to be loaded into the van. Hand tools, Milwaukee power tools, batteries, and sawzalls were staged in the van. In a backpack, officers located a realistic replica handgun with a working trigger.
In this case, the arrests result from alert community members and your officers going the extra mile in their investigations. The same van and a silver F-150 truck had been reported to police as having been parked on the South side of the elk meadows the day before. Several poles along the road’s Northside had been cut down, and several sawzall blades were found near the poles.
Both suspects are North Bend residents and are out on bail. They have been charged with Attempted Theft 2nd and Malicious Mischief 3rd. Lumen estimated the initial damage to be at least $20,000, which could rise based on repair costs.
According to Snoqualmie police Ofc. James Kaae, from what they understand, the cable is fiber optic and bundled communications cables. Like other cable thefts, it is likely sold as scrap for cash.
This case is the second arrest the Snoqualmie Police made for the cable cutting and theft.
Thanks to the King County Sheriff’s Office and Issaquah Police Department for their help with this case.
[Information provided by the Snoqualmie Police Department]
Comments
Feel free to tack on a civil penalty to reimburse all customers affected by the 1.5 day outage.
Living Snoqualmie might well do a special feature about the community vigilance that led to the arrest of the Lumen cable thieves. Meadowbrook Farm Park is a public park and valley treasure that hundreds drive by regularly–and someone was observant enough, and thoughtful enough to realize people shouldn’t be driving/parking beyond the delineated elk-viewing pull-out areas–and the police cared enough to respond. Imagine the audacity of thieves sawing down power poles along a state highway!! We all need to be observant and responsive to what is going on to protect our neighborhoods, public parks and buildings. Thank you to the people who called this in, and thank you to our local police!