Police suspect Mercer Island man in open house theft case

Police say they’ve solved a case where $800 in jewelry was stolen from a real estate open house in Arlington, in a scheme that has been carried out around Puget Sound.

Detectives believe a Mercer Island man, 36, pretended to be a real estate agent to get into a brokers-only open house on Oct. 6 on Shady Grove Place.

He gave an excuse that he was all out of business cards. A security camera in a bedroom caught him taking a necklace from a jewelry box and stuffing it in his back pocket, said Kristin Banfield, a spokeswoman for the city of Arlington.

On Monday, the suspect was booked into King County Jail in connection to unrelated cases of burglary and heroin possession.

Arlington police interviewed him in jail. They expect he will be charged with second-degree theft and criminal impersonation.

Police believe a Des Moines woman, 37, will be charged as an accomplice. The pair is being investigated for other, almost identical thefts in King and Kitsap counties, Banfield said.