East Wenatchee police arrest suspects in porch theft case within hours

EAST WENATCHEE — Even as the holiday rush fades and delivery trucks return to a more ordinary pace, the occasional bout of porch piracy hasn’t entirely disappeared. This week, East Wenatchee police showed how quickly that kind of theft can be shut down.

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, officers were dispatched around 2:48 p.m. to a report of Amazon packages stolen from the porch of a home in the 400 block of Sixth Street Northeast. The suspects, a man and a woman, were captured on home surveillance video along with their vehicle.

According to police, the footage gave officers a clear look at both the suspects and their car. Within a few hours of the report, the same officer investigating the case spotted the vehicle traveling in the 200 block of Simon Street and conducted a traffic stop.

Police said the two people inside the vehicle were wearing the same clothing seen in the surveillance video at the time of the theft.

The man, a 39-year-old East Wenatchee resident, and the woman, a 29-year-old East Wenatchee resident, were taken into custody and booked into the Chelan County Jail on suspicion of third-degree theft.

Officers impounded the vehicle while they seek a search warrant in an effort to recover the stolen packages.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media