EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series.
PORT ANGELES — A businesswoman’s posse who cornered accused burglar Sean V. Della acted on a tip from a customer.
Della, 26, who was charged last week in three burglaries, was arrested Feb. 1 after a group of five Port Angeles residents — during Super Bowl halftime — confronted him at a Lauridsen Boulevard apartment and accused him of burglarizing Mandy Gallacci’s store, Spotlight Tanning & Apparel.
The tip about his whereabouts came from a customer who responded to Gallacci’s Facebook posts earlier that day.
Gallacci had posted a cellphone video depicting a man who appeared to be casing her store at 715 E. First St. on Jan. 28, according to court records.
She also had posted surveillance tape of a man burglarizing her store.
About 60 people responded to Gallacci’s Facebook posts, many of whom said the person looked like Della.
“My Facebook went nuts with that name,” said Gallacci, 44.
Then she hit the jackpot.
“I got a private message on Facebook that said, ‘I know where Sean Della is,’” Gallacci recalled.
It was from a customer of hers.
“If you throw me some money, I’ll let you know exactly where he is,” Gallacci recalled the man saying.
“I told them, ‘If I catch him, I’ll pay you a hundred bucks.’
“I looked at my friends and said, ‘I know exactly where he is. Let’s go get my stuff.’”
Gallacci said she did not think to call the police.
“I do regret that,” she said.
“I was just going on such adrenaline . . . and feeling so violated by this guy, I was nothing but furious.”
Gallacci said she, Lindsay Fraker, Olivia Pluard, Robert LaBelle and her son, Kyle Christensen — who was carrying a baseball bat — piled into Fraker’s pickup truck.
They drove about 6 miles from the Mount Angeles Road residence where they had been watching the game to the apartment in the 900 block of West Lauridsen Boulevard where Della was staying.
Della, who was sleeping, greeted them in his underwear, they said.
Police describe Della as a transient. They said they were told he was staying at the home of a relative’s friend.
“You can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Gallacci recalled telling Della, promising not to call the police if he returned what he had allegedly stolen.
“I think I said, ‘I have you on film [casing] the place and stealing,’ or something to that effect,” she said.
“He kept saying over and over again, ‘It wasn’t me.’”
Della said someone else had burglarized her store, Gallacci said.
“We kept saying, ‘We know you did it, we know you did it,’” she said.
Gallacci said Della admitted he had the merchandise and told them it was at a trailer park off U.S. Highway 101 west of the city.
“He agreed to take us where it was if we did not hurt him,” Gallacci said.
After Della got dressed, they drove to the trailer park, but the items weren’t there, and they returned to the apartment, she said.
“He was just stalling to buy time,” Gallacci said.
Della eventually returned seven pairs of jeans, she said.
“I told him if he did not return the rest, I’m calling the police, then and there,” she said.
“Then I did call the police.”
At one point during the confrontation, Della started crying, Gallacci said.
“He was crying his eyes out, actually,” she said.
“We gave him the drug talk about how you wouldn’t do this if you weren’t on drugs.
“LaBelle gave him the parenting talk on how he needs help.”
According to a probable-cause statement written by Port Angeles Police Officer Allen Brusseau, police dispatchers received a call from Gallacci at 6:12 p.m. that day in which she said she had Della “restrained” at 934 W. Lauridsen Blvd.
Clallam County Court documents said police met LaBelle at the apartments, who told police Della had just entered Apartment 110 and was still inside.
Della fled out the back window of the apartment, was located by officers at South C and West Madrona streets, and was taken into custody.
Gallacci said she was not worried that Della, who is 5-foot-1 and 204 pounds, had a gun or would otherwise hurt her.
“What’s he gonna do, shoot all five of us?” she said.
Gallacci added they did not threaten Della with the baseball bat, held by her son.
Chief Terry Gallagher said it’s not a good idea for citizens to take the law into their own hands and go after someone they believe has committed a crime.
“If they had information that identified a suspect, it probably would have been a wiser course of action to let us know that,” he said.
Gallacci said she has paid $100 to the informant who told her about Della.
“I would say it’s one of Della’s friends, if I were to guess,” she said.
MONDAY: Port Angeles police tell of staffing constraints.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
