Police: Teens rob Gig Harbor gas station at gunpoint, crash into downtown building

Editor’s note: This blotter is compiled in part from Gig Harbor police reports.

Game Stop robbery

A man walked into Game Stop around 6 p.m. on March 4 in the 5500 block of Olympic Drive.

He drew a handgun and demanded money from the till, Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey said.

“The suspect is white, male, around 30-40 years old, and 6 feet tall weighing 300 pounds. He had short, dark hair and was wearing a covering over his lower face,” a Gig Harbor Police Department Facebook post said.

“The suspect is still on the run for now, we do have some tips and are following up,” Busey told the Gateway Friday.

Teens crash after robbing gas station

Two teenage boys walked into the Union 76 gas station at 7101 Pioneer Way on March 3.

Police said one of the boys, a 17-year-old, is seen on video holding a gun and telling the clerk to give him the till.

After taking the till, the two suspects got into a car with another teenage boy and a teenage girl, Busey told the Gateway.

The vehicle was stolen, police said.

“An officer saw them flee the scene as the information was being dispatched,” Busey said. “He followed to Soundview Drive and attempted to stop them.”

The suspects crashed into the side of the building that houses Alinda Morris Interior Design and Gig Harbor Real Estate.

Right before that, they almost hit a parked car, Busey said.

The officer was able to arrest the 17-year-old suspect as he fled the car, Busey said.

“The female approached a house nearby because she sustained a cut on her hand during the crash,” Busey said. “The homeowners assisted her and called 911.”

The 15-year-old girl was with the group, but investigators did not have enough probable cause to arrest her at that time, Busey said.

The other two teenage boys fled the scene, allegedly stealing a second car.

“Two hours later a GHPD Sergeant observed two subjects leaving an apartment complex in a vehicle on Borgen Boulevard at a high rate of speed and with no lights,” a GHPD Facebook post said. “He confirmed that one of the subjects in the car matched that of the other male involved in the robbery.”

There was a pursuit, the suspects crashed, and the two teenagers: “fled into the woods toward the Canterwood neighborhood,” the Facebook post said.

They remain on the run, according to police.

She left her purse behind her seat

A woman parked her car on Feb. 16 along Stinson Avenue and went for a walk.

She left her yellow Coach purse, worth $300, behind one of the seats.

Since the windows were tinted, she assumed no one would be able to see it, according to the police report.

After about an hour, she returned and discovered the rear passenger window was broken. Her purse was gone.

Inside the purse was a $200 Coach wallet, $1,000 in cash, a personal checkbook, debit and credit cards, house keys, and the woman’s driver’s license.

‘Catch me if you can’

Two Gig Harbor police officers responded to do a security check on Feb. 26 at the Target at 11400 51st Ave., to deter theft.

As officers arrived, a Target employee told them a man on a shopping scooter removed a security device from a craft machine and put it in his cart.

The machine, a Circuit Maker 3, costs about $400. It can cut, draw and engrave items such as cards and T-shirts.

As officers were standing near the front of the store, the man rode by the officers and allegedly said: “Catch me if you can.”

The man then went to self-check out, according to the police report.

Officers later discovered the man had taken the original price tag off the craft machine and replaced it with a sticker for an item that cost about $3, the report said.

As the man attempted to leave the store, officers stopped him and said Target employees witnessed him remove the security device.

The man told officers he did not have his glasses and did not know the tags had been switched.

Officers later discovered he had a DUI warrant out of Kitsap County that was bookable, the report said.

During their conversation, another man walked out of the store with a bag full of over-the-counter medications, which set off security alarms.

One of the officers told him to stop, and the man refused, the report said.

Officers eventually placed him under arrest on suspicion of theft. He was released with a trespass notice and told he was being investigated for felony theft, and that the case would be forwarded to prosecutors.

The two suspects were not together, police said. They were allegedly shoplifting separately at the same time.