Middle class criminals have to accessorize:
"It's a tale right out of Charles Dickens, but instead of Oliver Twist, they hired adult drug addicts to do the thefts," said [Washington] state Attorney General Rob McKenna, whose office is prosecuting the crimes. "And we've got the Fagin here as well as the thieves."
Police and prosecutors said Martin D. Levy, the longtime owner of Liberty Loan pawnshop on Pike Street; his daughter, Leslie Calvo; and her husband, Richard Calvo, directed addicts and transients to steal particular items from high-end downtown shops and department stores. Items included 52 Armani suits from Nordstrom, hundreds of pieces of blown-glass art, Virgin cellphones, Calloway golf clubs, Coach purses and a $500 banana-wood soap dish.
.... police and prosecutors say Leslie Calvo collected original glass art and frequently placed "orders" with thieves for particular items, such as a $4,500 crystal vase from a Nordstrom display rack or a blown-glass lamp from Fremont's Edge of Glass, where the total losses were estimated to be near $15,000.
....In court documents, one thief who had been confronted by police told officers he had once been asked to steal two overcoats from Nordstrom for Levy and Richard Calvo.
After he sold the overcoats to Leslie Calvo for a fraction of their retail cost, she sent the thief "back to Nordstrom's [sic] to get matching scarves and gloves," court documents allege.
Levy lives in a home on a half-acre lot on [exclusive] Mercer Island, court documents say. His son-in-law is a dentist in Burien.
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