Burien Police / King County Sheriff’s Office is reporting about how a recent call about a vehicle prowler led to the arrest of a burglary suspect in Burien.

On Monday, July 13, 2020, at around 7:30 p.m., Burien Police responded to a commercial burglary at the Mobile Gas Station in the 12600 block of Ambaum Blvd SW (map below).

The suspect entered the back office and removed a large sum of cash and left the gas station.

Officers had a description of the suspect, but were unable to locate him.

Three hours later, Burien Police responded to a vehicle prowl call at Highline Medical Center (now St. Anne’s) around 10:40 p.m. The description of the suspect matched the description from the earlier commercial burglary call at the gas station.

Burien Deputies did an area check for the suspect, but did not locate him. Deputies met with the caller who had watched the male break into a white Audi and try to get into another car.

After contacting the victim of the Audi and taking a report, deputies were ready to leave but were flagged down and told the suspect was just seen walking along SW 160th Street. Burien Police located the suspect, but as they pulled up behind him he took off running northbound.

Deputies chased the suspect for about three blocks until he fell into a ditch. Once the suspect was handcuffed, officers noticed a large amount of cash under and around the suspect. The suspect claimed he got the money from a job, but couldn’t explain what he did for a living. The amount of cash recovered was similar to the amount of cash stolen from the gas station earlier.

An employee from the gas station identified the suspect as the burglar and witnesses also identified him as the car prowler at Highline. The suspect was booked into SCORE Jail for Investigation of Burglary and Theft.