PORT ANGELES — A 29-year-old Port Angeles man has been arrested in last weekend’s smash-and-grab burglary at a pawn shop on First Street.
Police cannot say yet if the man was involved in an earlier burglary at Radio Shack that was thought to have been burgled in the same way.
“We’re working these cases as if they are connected,” said Brian Smith, deputy police chief, on Saturday.
But he added:
“We have nothing yet that we can use to attribute that subject to the Radio Shack burglary.”
Bret Miles Dotson was booked into the Clallam County jail Friday and remained there Saturday with no bond set for investigation of one count each of first-degree burglary, first-degree theft from a building and first-degree possession of stolen property after allegedly breaking into the EZ Pawn shop at 113 E. First St. in the early morning hours of May 11.
Police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck said Saturday that Dotson was arrested without incident at a home in the 500 block of East Eighth Street after police spoke with his mother there.
“She said that he was there. She went in and asked him to come out, and he did,” said Roggenbuck.
Roggenbuck said police had received an anonymous tip that Dotson was at the home but did not know Saturday what had led police to suspect him.
Police continue to seek two other men in the pawn shop burglary, in which jewelry and firearms were reported stolen and entry was made through a broken glass door.
The suspects in the EZ Pawn burglary, while driving a Kia Sportage, reportedly led police on a 10-minute chase that reached speeds of 70 mph as it snaked its way from First Street to Race Street then to Mount Angeles Road, eventually ending on a small residential street where the pursuing officers lost it.
The Kia was found in a parking lot near the intersection of Eighth and Francis streets about two hours later.
Radio Shack
The burglars of the Radio Shack on 1940 E. First St. struck early May 8 and made off with several iPods and two laptop computers, according to police accounts.
Burglars in this case also broke the store’s glass to get inside.
Police were looking for an dark-colored early 1990s Honda Accord thought to be involved in the Radio Shack burglary.
Police are asking anyone with information on either burglary to phone the department at 360-452-4545 or North Olympic Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477, a 24-hour, toll-free number where anonymous tips can be left.
Crime Stoppers offers a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and filing of felony charges.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
