SEATTLE - Police have shut down a major pipeline for stolen computer equipment in the Rainier Valley and arrested a man they say gave car-prowlers and burglars a place to trade stolen laptops for cash.

The shop where the suspect allegedly operated, in the 7600 block of Rainier Avenue South, is inconspicuous from the outside. There is no sign to advertise - and most people would never know it was a computer repair shop.

Police say that's because the customers were mostly crooks - and the shop helped them turn a hot PC or laptop into a pocketful of cash.

According to detectives, the owner bought stolen electronics, wiped the hard drives, then resold the equipment on e-Bay and other Internet sites.

For the past year, Jean Bates, who lives behind the shop, has watched the stream of cars coming to the unmarked computer shop.

Then on Friday, she watched the shop get busted - after officers obtained a search warrant to look for a specific stolen laptop.

"There were many police cars there," she says. "Been a policeman there all day today, and I think that they came and kind of cleaned out the two buildings."

Investigators seized 600 laptops, along with several hundred hard drives, digital cameras, iPods, games systems, cell phones and other electronics.

Detectives ran the serial numbers on several of the laptops and found that most of them had been reported stolen in area burglaries.

The shop had no paperwork, receipts or other documentation commonly found in a retail business. So police shut it down and arrested the owner.

"I saw them going to and from the building," says Pat Robinson, who also witnessed officers confiscating equipment.

Seattle police say the Rainier Valley shop was known on the street as the place for car prowlers and burglars to dump hot electronics.

Lst month, a neighbor saw a man hiding from officers near the store.

"As soon as the cop walked up the hill, the guy with the laptops kind of crouched down and went behind the neighbor's car, and then he took of running," says Taharra Robinson.

After police arrested the owner, they searched his home. KOMO News found more electronics piled in a car in his driveway.

Neighbors say the business was a problem that kept getting worse.

"It just seemed really shady," Robinson said.

Police say it's going to take at least a week to sort through those 600 laptops and check the serial numbers.

The good news is a lot of crime victims could soon be getting their stolen equipment back.