Dental office thief: Wallet-stealing crook strikes while workers out for lunch; help ID him for Redmond detectives

dental-office-thiefWANTED IN REDMOND --
You've heard the saying, "When the cat's away, the mouse will play."

Well, in this case, the rodent is a thief who thinks he's a pretty smooth criminal.

Redmond detectives are hoping you can help identify him after he slipped into a dentist's office and stole a wallet while everyone was gone for lunch.

Fortunately, several surveillance cameras were rolling for it all.

Check out the video below:
He enters the dentist's lobby, holding a white napkin or handkerchief that he uses to wipe his fingerprints off everything he touches. The jacket he steals the wallet from is off camera. Then -- get this -- on his way out he grabs the dentist's business card, peers over the front desk to see if there's anything more to steal, then walks out. Switch to the building's hall camera and you see him come down the stairs and walk right over to another office he wants to rip off -- but he's foiled -- because there are workers inside who ask if they can help him. That's where detectives say he flashes them the dentist's business card and plays it off like he's lost and looking to get his teeth worked on.



Detectives think he's in his late 20's and hoping someone knows his name.

"Pretty frustrating for us,” says Rebecca Range with Redmond Police. “We feel like this is pretty brazen, so this happened during the middle of the day while the office employees were breaking for lunch. We would really like to have this suspect identified.”

A camera also caught him sneaking into a storage room before he hit the dentist's office and that's where we get a good look at the really unique ballcap he's wearing: It's dark blue on the back and white in the front with the player shadow of the NBA logo on the left. The bill is gray and had a gold store sticker on it.

If you recognize him, call an anonymous tip into:
CRIME STOPPERS: 1-800-222-TIPS

You must call the Crime Stoppers hotline with your tip to be eligible to receive a cash reward for information leading to a fugitive’s arrest.