Smash and grab twice on the same weekend by the same suspect

The newly renovated Mobil gas station on 1101 College St SE was burglarized twice a weekend ago by a man who grabbed cigarette lighters near the entry door, according to Lacey Police.

Lacey officers were already investigating a smash-and-grab break-in that occurred on Sat., April 17 at the Mobil gas station at 1101 College St. SE when they received a call early on Sun., April 18, that the left entry door at the same location had just been breached.

After the Saturday break-in, the store’s management had boarded up the right door.

Surveillance video of the first break-in provided to police by store staff showed a male wearing “a long black trench coat and carpenter-style tan pants with a rip on the back lower right pant leg.” With only that to go on, at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, only 20 hours after the second break-in, a Lacey officer was dispatched to another location nearby and observed Cameron Long, 30, a transient living in Lacey, digging through a trash container.

Long was wearing “carpenter-style tan pants with a rip on the back lower right pant leg.” The officer asked Long if he had any personal belongings nearby, to which he responded that he had a jacket he had left behind another business nearby. The officer provided “a courtesy transport to his jacket” which allowed him to positively identify Long as a suspect in the burglary at the Mobil store, according to Lacey Police.

Long was arrested but struggled with law enforcement. He was booked into the Nisqually Jail for malicious mischief and trespass.