SPOKANE, Wash. – The Spokane Police Department issued a request to the Washington Superior Court to obtain a saliva sample from a Spokane man suspected of burglarizing a local store.
Donald Stamper, 57, was charged with three counts of second-degree burglary. He is suspected to have broken into LeftBank Wine Bar in downtown Spokane three times in the last month.
The owner of the restaurant, Isaac Gordon, reported the first break in on May 21. According to video surveillance, the suspect pried or kicked open the back door of the restaurant just after 5:30 a.m.
The video shows the suspect walking straight to the cash register, which was left ajar. He stole about $203 in cash and left out the front door.
Police report that the suspect in the video was a white male, approximately 40 to 60 years old, very thin and wearing a beanie.
Sometime between May 29 at 8:10 p.m. and May 30 at 3:30 p.m., the LeftBank Wine Bar was burglarized again.
The suspect used the same strategy as the May 21 incident to get into the store. He either pried or kicked open the back door and stole about $310 from the cash register.
Surveillance video from the second burglary was not immediately recovered.
On May 7 at about 12:20 p.m., police report that the same suspect burglarized the business again.
After the first two incidents, Gordon said he replaced the back door. The suspect was unable to pry open the door, so he instead broke out a skinny window next to the door to unlock it and open let himself inside.
The cash register was locked this time and the owner said he decided to hide the cash in a fridge.
The suspect broke open the register with a pair of scissors and then searched the store after he discovered there was no cash in the drawer. The suspect eventually found a cash bag with approximately $128 dollars in a fridge.
The suspect also wrote "suck it b****** " on a note and left it in the restaurant.
Police were able to obtain another video of the third burglary. Police documents describe the suspect as a white male with a long face, long blond hair and having a white goatee.
Police identified Stamper and compared him to the suspect. Police documents describe Stamper and the suspect in the video are “extremely similar in nature.”
Police arrested Stamper on June 15. They have since requested to obtain a DNA sample to compare to evidence found at the scene in the third burglary, including blood that was found on the registers, scissors and a paper receipt.
At the time of the arrest, Stamper had a misdemeanor warrant for malicious mischief.