Seattle police seek 2 men, woman in stun-gun robberies

Seattle police are searching for a trio of robbers responsible for daytime attacks on three women last week. A stun gun and a stolen car with stolen plates are the common threads tying the cases together, according to police.

All three women were either loading or unloading items from their cars when they were attacked.

The first robbery occurred just before 2 p.m. May 17. According to a Seattle police report, a woman was unloading her car in the parking garage of her apartment building in the 4200 block of Phinney Avenue North in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood when a stun gun was pressed against her neck and she felt a jolt of electricity.

She was pushed into her open trunk, and her purse was stolen.

The woman told officers she saw two suspects for a few seconds before they got into a gray or silver sedan driven by a third person and last seen heading east on North 42nd Street.

The woman's landlord, Joan Anderson, said the woman was actually loading items into her trunk with her back to the street when she was grabbed from behind. "I think they just happened to be driving by and saw an opportunity," Anderson said. "They were gone in a split second."

Anderson said the woman, who is in her 50s or 60s, requested — and received — a dead bolt on her apartment door.

"Her keys were in her purse, which is why she didn't feel safe," Anderson said.

The woman immediately called to cancel her credit cards "and by the time she got to the last card, they'd already used it five times," Anderson said of the robbery suspects.

The second attack happened just before 1 p.m. May 19 when a woman was assaulted after she pulled into her driveway in the 9300 block of 22nd Avenue Northwest in the Crown Hill neighborhood, according to another police report. She opened her garage door and was taking bags from the passenger side of her Mercedes-Benz when "suddenly two men were upon her, the taller one grabbing her left arm tightly," the report says.

"She heard the clicking noises that come from stun guns but she did not see it," the report says. The woman didn't feel a jolt and, as she screamed loudly for help, she fell to the ground. Her head struck the pavement, the report said, "opening up two stitches from a recent cosmetic surgery on the left side of her head."

One man scooped the woman's brown Coach purse from the ground and a second "tried to grab her Nordstrom bag as well, but fumbling, dropped it in the driveway," according to the report. The two men ran to a waiting gray vehicle driven by a woman, which sped off south along 22nd Avenue Northwest.

Police took the Nordstrom bag as evidence in hopes of finding fingerprints, the report says.

Just past noon the following day, a third woman was robbed outside her home in the 700 block of North 102nd Street as she was removing bags from her trunk. The victim was approached from behind by a man and a woman and she, too, felt a stun gun pressed against her neck and heard clicking noises, but wasn't jolted, the report says.

The female assailant grabbed the woman's purse, which contained a burgundy wallet with $12 cash and some credit cards. Both robbers got into a silver sedan that was waiting nearby, the report says.

The vehicle — which had been reported stolen — was later found in a church parking lot in the 13200 block of Palatine Avenue North, with different license plates, also stolen, on the front and rear of the car, the report says. The car was towed to the police department's processing room to be searched for evidence.

After the third robbery, officers located some "possible suspects" in the 13000 block of Linden Avenue North. The third victim and a witness who saw the robbers get out of the car in the church parking lot were brought by to look at the people detained, but told officers none were involved in the robberies, the report says.

Though the victims didn't get a good look at their attackers and gave slightly different descriptions, police say they are looking for two black men and a woman who is Asian or possibly mixed-race.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com