Police arrested a 24-year-old Silverdale man for allegedly taking a wallet that a woman dropped as she was leaving the Hi-Way Market on Bethel Road in South Kitsap.
A man reported the theft of his wife’s wallet to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, and a deputy went to the store to review video from the security surveillance camera. The video showed a woman inadvertently dropped her wallet on her way out the door.
On the video the suspect is seen entering the store and kicking the wallet to the side of the entryway. The man handed the clerk a lottery ticket for redemption and bent down to open the wallet, which he then put in his sweatshirt pocket.
The suspect left without telling the clerk he found a wallet on the floor, and he was seen walking away with a woman and a baby in a stroller.
According to the deputy’s report, the victims reported the incident to KING 5 News, and the station aired a story about it Friday. Later that evening, someone who saw the newscast contacted the sheriff’s office to identify the suspect seen on the videotape.
The deputy learned that the suspect’s parents lived near the market, so he went there and located the suspect. The man and his girlfriend admitted that he took the wallet, but said he discarded it on the way back to his parents’ house. The deputy searched the area where the suspect said he left the wallet but was unable to find it.
The male was arrested on a second-degree theft charge.
