Police: Would-be burglar arrested after Metro bus getway fails

SEATTLE – A homeowner trying to get out of the house Monday morning is lucky he wasn’t quicker because his timing allowed him to catch a man trying to burglarize the home.

Seattle Police said the man was packing up his laptop computer around 8:30 a.m. Monday inside his home in the 1500 block of E. Olin Place on the north end of Capitol Hill when he heard a noise from a window behind him.

The man told police he turned, saw someone trying to pry open then window and started waiving his hands over his head so the burglar knew he had been spotted.

The burglar looked up and dropped out of the sight. The homeowner said he then vaulted over a metal fence and ran south on 15th Ave E.

Police arrived and while searching the area saw a man who fit the description of the burglar running south on 15th in the middle of the street. That man boarded a Metro bus, but police said they caught up to him and escorted him off that bus and back to the homeowner who identified him as the would-be-burglar.

The 24-year-old was arrested and sent to jail. A prosecutor will now decide how or if to charge him.