Two suspected in soccer goal theft

Published 10:44 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – A man and woman from Issaquah may be charged for an attempted burglary in North Bend that was similar to another incident carried out earlier this spring.

The 20-year-old man and 19-year-old woman are the primary suspects following a July 4 incident where a King County Sheriff’s Office deputy found the two loading parts of aluminum soccer goals into a truck near Torguson Park in North Bend. (It is the policy of the Valley Record not to print the names of suspects until they have been charged with a crime.) The goals belonged to the Snoqualmie Valley Soccer Association, which had parts of its soccer goals stolen earlier this year.

When the deputy first encountered the woman, she said she was picking up the goals with the permission of a woman who worked for the soccer association, although she couldn’t remember the name of the person she’d talked to or even what they looked like. While the woman was being questioned, another deputy arrived to find that the storage boxes at the field used to store the goals had been pried open. The woman was handcuffed at the scene.

A man was with the woman at the time, but he was not cuffed because of a prior leg injury. He told deputies that he and the woman had picked up another man (the woman’s boyfriend) earlier that day and had come to the park. The man being questioned said he fell asleep at the field while the woman and her boyfriend went to “do something back there,” but he was later awakened by the two fighting. The man said he then saw the boyfriend leave the scene.

Deputies talked to business owners along North Bend Way who said they had seen a man fitting the boyfriend’s description in the area. He was later located with the help of witness testimony, but was not questioned or arrested.

An official with the soccer association arrived at the scene and confirmed that no one at the association had given anyone permission to take the goals. Further investigation found the padlock for the shed that had been cut off. The goal posts had holes drilled in them in an apparent attempt to weaken the aluminum before cutting it with a hacksaw. There were also numerous tools at the site that could be used for breaking and entering. The registered owner of the truck found at the scene could not be located and it appeared as though the truck’s ignition had been damaged. A bag with what appeared to be methamphetamine was also found, along with a number of keys, an address book, a power converter and ATM receipts that showed a bank balance with thousands of dollars.

The woman was arrested but the man found at the scene was not. The King County Prosecutor’s Office is currently reviewing the case and charges may be filed in the next couple of weeks against the woman and her boyfriend, according to prosecuting office spokesman Dan Donohoe.

The incident bears a striking resemblance to what occurred a couple months earlier in April when officials with the same soccer association reported that goal parts (worth about $10,000) had been stolen from the same site. City of North Bend officials noticed the goal parts were missing and notified soccer association officials, who said the parts had been left out in the open and that no one had been authorized to take them.

A witness in that incident reported to the sheriff’s office that he had seen a young man and a young woman looking at the goals a week prior to the goals’ disappearance. That witness said, however, that he couldn’t identify the pair if he saw them again.

King County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Urquhart said his office has made no formal connection between the two incidents because they have little to no information about the suspects in the April incident. That does not mean, however, that there is no connection. Even if the two people apprehended in the July incident were not involved in the April incident, Urquhart said, they could know who was.

“They tend to run in the same circles,” Urquhart said.