Lacey man arrested after alleged assault, phone theft

Olympia police arrested a 38-year-old Lacey man on Dec. 4 after an anonymous caller reported seeing multiple men assault another male and take the man’s phone along Ensign Road.

A responding police officer noted that the victim was bleeding from small lacerations on his forehead and nose bridge.

The man whose phone was stolen, a Shelton resident, told police that a woman he had met earlier in the day agreed to give him a ride to the area in a silver Honda CRV.

The Shelton man’s sibling later called authorities because an unknown male answered his brother’s phone.

The unknown male said he would only return the device if the Shelton man’s brother were to pay for it, according to the police report.

Police accompanied the man to Providence St. Peter Hospital, where his brother was supposed to pick him up.

While at the hospital, the Shelton man noticed the silver Honda CRV drive by and told police that the male in the passenger seat appeared to be one of the people who assaulted him.

Police stopped the vehicle and the man positively identified the male in the passenger seat as one of his attackers.

Authorities said the accused was “not cooperative” and kept screaming that police were arresting the wrong suspect.

A search of the suspect’s belongings failed to yield the allegedly stolen phone, but police found two whips and a small bag containing a white, crystallized substance thought to be methamphetamine, among several other items.

The accused man was booked at the Thurston County Jail for second-degree robbery.