"Burglary suspects run, can't hide"

"Four occupants of a car, including the driver, didn't bother parking or even stopping it before jumping out and running from police early Saturday morning in Oak Harbor.Two of men, however, were arrested by police at a local hotel shortly afterward and are facing felony burglary charges. Another suspect is still at large.Oak Harbor Police Cpt. Rick Wallace said a Island County deputy spotted a car on Midway Boulevard at about 4:40 a.m. that looked like a possible DUI. But when he pulled up behind the car - which had a Minnesota license plate - the four occupants jumped out and ran away. The deputy stayed with the car until it came to a stop without damaging anything.Wallace said that police who responded to the scene found paperwork in the car from the Oak Harbor Pub and Brewery. They immediately went to the pub and discovered that the back door had been broken into.Inside, Wallace said a safe had been peeled and all the money that was inside had been stolen. Peeling is a method of breaking into a safe by stripping or chiseling away layers of steel from the outside. Police found that money had also been stolen from a second office.Wallace said that detectives checked local hotels for customers who had registered with out-of-state licenses. They found a match at the Best Western and got a search warrant. Soon afterward the detectives knocked on the hotel room and found two men and a woman inside, along with a bunch of money. The two 18-year-old Minnesota men were arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary. The young woman was wanted on a warrant out of Minnesota for a probation violation. Minnesota officials sent her a bus ticket home.According to Wallace, all of the money except about $100 was recovered from the hotel room. He would not disclose exactly how much was believed stolen.The police have identified a third man they think was involved in the burglary, but they haven't been able to find him.Wallace said the police are checking with other jurisdictions with unsolved burglaries to see if the mode of operation of this burglary matches.I wouldn't say they were professionals, but they seemed to be fairly prolific burglars, he said. "

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