SPOKANE, Wash. — A bill moving through Washington's legislature would allow for tougher sentences for repeat property crime offenders.
Senate Bill 5056 would allow prosecutors to seek up two additional years on a sentence for first-degree robbery if they can prove that person is a habitual offender. The defendant must meet certain criteria, including criminal history of property crime.
The bill was co-sponsored by Senator Mike Padden of Spokane Valley.
“What this bill tries to do is keep habitual, repeat offenders behind bars for longer periods of time," the Republican state senator said.
Property crime includes things like car theft, robbery or burglary and retail theft.
At Entropy Records and Vintage in downtown Spokane, a recent theft attempt highlights issues owner JJ Wandler says impact many businesses in the area.
"We know that it happens," he said. "Unfortunately it feels like it's the cost of doing business."
Wandler and some of his music memorabilia are now on the move inside the store.
"Yeah. In our window we had this vintage Gibson hollow body electric guitar," he picks up the $1,500 guitar, which were displayed alongside a vintage Gibson amp and another $900 guitar.
They've now been moved to a less conspicuous corner, more out of sight for opportunistic thieves like the one who hit the shop Thursday morning.
Wandler says he got a call from his security company around 4:30 am for broken glass. Before he arrived, a police officer was already there and had found the tool the would-be thief used.
"They hammered at it with a rock. Or multiple rocks," Wandler said.
Luckily the reinforced glass and the security system stopped an actual smash-and-grab, but the window will have to be replaced. The officer recovered the rock, which Wandler said could be lined up with the impact marks in the glass. He's keeping it as a souvenir.
"I said it was shocking someone could find a rock under all this snow and he said what they've noticed some of these dishonest folks out breaking windows carry rocks with them," he said.
Senator Padden's push against property crime would target these types of offenses and the people who repeatedly commit them.
"We have a real crisis in the explosion of property crimes," he said during a February 2023 hearing on the proposal. "You take them out of the picture and the property crime rate will go down substantially. from what I understand from law enforcement, there are a relatively few number of people that commit crimes in this area."
The bill passed Washington's Senate 38-10 Wednesday and now moves to the House.
Wandler, however, isn't so sure it's the right approach to the problem.
"These are crimes of opportunity," he said. "I don't think anybody doing this type of stuff is really thinking that far ahead to how much time they'd be looking at."
He's in favor of more drug treatment and assistance for people who are struggling, which he believes is a common factor in these crimes.
For now, he's rearranging more merchandise and keeping his sense of humor about it all.
"I figure the guy who threw it must have a pretty good arm," he smirked.
He also snapped a shot of a very fitting album cover.
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