Guard confesses to Sirti burglaries
Authorities say a part-time Washington State University security guard helped solve a $26,461 burglary spree this summer at Sirti. By confessing.
James Allen Glantz, 29, thought he wasn’t getting enough hours of work and was “disappointed” that his security advice wasn’t heeded, so he allegedly took action to create a better market for his services.
Ironically, court documents suggest Glantz’s “elaborate documentation” of an Aug. 5 burglary at the Sirti Technology Center, 120 N. Pine St. on the Riverpoint Campus, caused university officials to suspect him. He reportedly cited his “previous law enforcement experience and provided possible suspect information.”
University officials checked computerized telephone logs and found evidence of suspicious actions just before and after Glantz called 911, according to a police affidavit used to charge him.
Glantz was released on his own recognizance after being booked into jail Thursday on four counts of second-degree burglary, four counts of first-degree theft, one count of first-degree malicious mischief, and one count of first-degree trafficking in stolen property. He faces trial Feb. 5 in Spokane County Superior Court.
Court documents say Glantz stole $19,574 worth of computers and other high-tech equipment, petty cash and tools from Washington State University and five businesses with offices in the Sirti Technology Center.
He also is accused of causing $6,887 worth of damage to the building and its contents.
After reporting the break-in, Glantz allegedly finished his shift, collected the stolen goods he had stashed outside and went home with his loot.
Most of the charges spring from the Aug. 5 burglary, but one of the theft charges is for $50 in cash, a digital camera and other equipment Glantz allegedly took from an open safe in the Student Affairs Office between Aug. 12 and 14.
Spokane police Detective Paul Lebsock says in a court affidavit that Glantz confessed to him during a Sept. 6 interview at Glantz’s apartment at 9727 W. Morton Court.
Lebsock said that Glantz still had some of the stolen goods in his apartment and in his Dodge Durango but that he had sold, pawned and thrown away much of it.
The detective said a stolen big-screen television was recovered at the Pawn 1 store on North Division, where Glantz’s wife had hocked it for $400.
Glantz told his wife, Kim Glantz, that a friend had given them the television, Lebsock said.
James Allen Glantz said he sold a laptop to a former Sirti coffee shop worker but got nervous and dumped many of the other stolen items in the Spokane River and a Wal-Mart garbage bin, according to Lebsock.