Man suspected of stealing keyboard from Seattle church is arrested

SEATTLE – Police arrested a 37-year-old man Tuesday on Beacon Hill who they say stole a keyboard from a south Seattle church.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, police said, surveillance cameras at the church in the 8300 block of Renton Avenue South caught the suspect walking into the building and walking out with the $2,000 Yamaha keyboard.

After viewing surveillance footage from the church, officers recognized the suspect from his previous contacts with police, but police weren’t immediately able to locate the man, the Seattle Police Department said in a news release.

But, police said, on Tuesday, officers received a report of a man harassing people in a parking lot in the 8300 block of Military Road South and arrived to find the church burglar at the scene.

Officers arrested him for investigation of burglary and booked him into the King County Jail.



The theft occurred at Unity Church of God and Christ, said Bishop James E Hicks. He said the man in the video walked in through an unlocked door after service and walked out with cash from their vending machine and a keyboard.

“He showed up and pulled on the door and walked in,” said Hicks.

Video surveillance shows the man in the white shirt and black shorts walking into the church, down the aisles of their sanctuary and stealing a keyboard. The entire crime took place in less than 10 minutes.

“We just need the community's help now to locate him, we want the keyboard back and we want him caught so he doesn’t do this again,” Jacqualine Bowles, Hick’s daughter, said on Monday. “We need this keyboard back by Sunday to be able to play for worship.”