SEATTLE — Almost every day, EZ Deals Auto Sales in Lake City has to clean up messes left behind by vandals and thieves.
Saeed Ghoraishi, who manages the lot for his son, says along with people breaking into and sleeping in cars, people also steal parts from them. Ghoraishi and his employees have even been threatened.
"One of my employees was held up and his wife was with him. She couldn't work for a month because it made her so sick with worry," Ghoraishi said.
Ghoraishi's decades of experience in the car-selling business could never have prepared him for this constant barrage of money-draining incidents.
"They broke the window in one. They burned the new soft top. My guy just came back again to replace it. Just by itself, $1,600 in damage. The other car, $700. They drilled three cars' fuel tanks," Ghoraishi said. "This time, it's about $5,000 to $6,000 to make all the repairs."
In the most recent incident, Ghoraishi found a man sleeping in one of the cars. As opposed to confronting him, he called 911.
"We call the cops. Fortunately, they came so fast. Two officers came," he said.
This was a change from past incidents according to Ghoraishi. He says police had never shown up before. He thought they were going to make an arrest.
"Five or ten minutes, the officer talking with the guy, and then I saw the guy walk away. The officers said if we take him to the station, we can't hold him because it's a misdemeanor," he said.
Ghoraishi believes this is setting a dangerous precedent that could turn a property crime into something much worse.
"Seems to me we're going back to the old wild west. Everybody carrying and whoever you don't like, just shoot them," he said.
The Seattle Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on this particular story, whether its officers prioritize arrests on the severity of the crime. However, SPD has told KING 5 they prioritize violent crimes over property crimes. In an interview in June, Chief Diaz said his department is short around 360 officers meaning they're forced to do more with less.