Three Charged In Massive Seattle Theft Ring

SEATTLE - Three people have been charged in what Seattle police say was a massive theft ring that employed homeless and drug addicts throughout the city.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said Martin Levy and Richard and Leslie Calvo were charged with a total of 31 counts of theft, organized crime, money laundering, trafficking in stolen property, and other crimes.

Detectives said the case came to light more than two years ago after a tip from an informant.

Levy and the Calvos allegedly hired thieves to steal selected items and merchandise from area stores. The stolen goods were then kept by the three for personal use or sold at the Liberty Jewelry & Loan pawn shop, which is owned by Levy.

After thousands of hours of undercover work and investigation, search warrants were served in July 2005. Seattle police detectives said the raids yielded so much stolen property that they had to rent a warehouse to store it all.

The seizure was described as the third largest collection of evidence in Seattle Police history.

Dozens of stores were targeted by the thieves; a small glass gallery in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood and even big stores like Nordstrom, Sears, and Nike.

"They stole from all the retailers in downtown Seattle," said Detective Dan Stokke, who led the investigation.

Stokke said for 15 years Levy, his daughter Leslie Calvo, 38, and her husband Richard, 37, have been using homeless people and drug addicts to steal for them.

"It's almost impossible to know the exact scope but it's huge. I would say hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of crimes have been committed from this one location," said Stokke. "There were hundreds of addicts that were bringing stuff in for them."

Stokke has been watching and video taping the pawn shop transactions for more than two years. He said he watched as the suspects recruited street addicts and gave them a list of items to steal, told them where to steal things from, and then paid them 10 percent of the value of each stolen item.

"It's mind boggling," he said, adding that many of the stolen items were sold on eBay by Richard Calvo, a Burien dentist. "Golf equipment, Armani suits, Coach purses," he said.

Stokke said a big break in the case came when a piece of stolen art showed up in the window of a home where one of the suspects lived. When police searched the house, they found 326 pieces of stolen glass art.

James Curtis owns a glass gallery in Freemont, which was one of the stores allegedly targeted by the theft ring.

"I would step in back for couple minutes and a major lamp was unplugged and out the door," he said. Sixteen pieces were stolen from his gallery.

Curtis worked with Seattle police detectives, offering merchandise for informants to sell undercover to the pawn shop. "We provided several expensive glass pieces to be used in a sting operation," he said.

"It's a good thing these people are finally behind bars, they're getting what they deserve," he said.

McKenna said that Martin Levy and Leslie Calvo face up to life in prison if convicted of the various felony charges. Richard Calvo faces up to 20 years, he said. The three were schedule to be arraigned on the charges on Monday.