A 46-year-old man suspected of stealing from numerous businesses in Ballard in the past weeks was arrested Dec. 31 near 20th Avenue Northwest and Market Street for an outstanding warrant in Missouri.

According to victims, the man is suspected of entering businesses on Market Street and Ballard Avenue during business hours and taking money from back offices, safes and employees' purses.

At 3:51 p.m. Dec. 31, the police received calls from many community members who noticed the man walking around the neighborhood.

The man was booked into King County Jail for investigation of a fugitive, but detectives are investigating the crimes in Ballard before deciding to press further charges.

"I'm glad he's been caught," said Kylee Harris, owner of Cugini Caf/ on Ballard Avenue. "But I think the real thing we need to figure out is how to bust him for what he's stolen."

Descriptions of the man had been circulating between neighborhood businesses through email during December, but Cugini was the first business to capture an image of the suspect.

On Dec. 28 during the Ballard Farmers Market, the man walked in 15 minutes before closing while the caf/ was full of customers, Harris said.

She said an employee heard someone in the back office and went to investigate. The man ran out of the office with something stuffed in this jacket, locked himself in the bathroom and escaped through a window, she said.

Harris said the suspect escaped with the contents of the caf/'s moneybags, but does not know how much was stolen yet.

Cugini's security camera caught the suspect on his way out of the caf/, and his image was passed and posted throughout the neighborhood.

Romanza on Market Street was one of the first businesses in Ballard to have a run-in with the suspect.

Lydia Lampers, sales associate at Romanza, said the man came into the store at 5 p.m. on a Monday about a month ago. He seemed nice and was asking about the products, she said.

The store got busy and Lampers lost track of the man, then a sensor went off saying someone was on the stairs that lead to the office, she said.

She said she went to investigate, found the suspect busy with the store's safe and told him to leave the store.

The suspect returned the next Monday and was asked to leave, she said. Both times he claimed he was looking for the bathroom.

On Dec. 23 the suspect entered Portalis on Ballard Avenue when it was experiencing a pre-holiday rush, said owner Jens Strecker.

Strecker said this was before he had heard a description of the suspect and the man walked quickly to the back and then left about four minutes later.

He said he thought the man had just used the bathroom, but store manager Gina Gregory discovered that cash had been stolen out of her purse from the back room.

When he heard the description of the suspect from the other thefts, Strecker said he knew it was the same man.

The suspect stole from another employee purse Dec. 24 at Kitchen 'n Things on Market Street, said Janelle Hopkins, the store's manager.

She said the store was busy and receiving a UPS shipment, so the back door was propped open. Hopkins said she saw a man who didn't look like a UPS employee leaning into the back room, but she was so busy and distracted that she didn't think too much of it.

Later that day, an employee noticed her wallet was missing from her purse, which had been in the back room, and her credit cards were used around the neighborhood that afternoon, Hopkins said.

She said the suspect matched the description she received from Romanza.

Mark Durall, manager of the Olympic Athletic Club, said a staff member discovered the suspect in the employees-only basement of the club Dec. 24. The suspect explained he was looking for the bathroom, but was not a member or a guest of a member, and would leave if he could not use the bathroom, Durall said.

Other businesses such as Lucca, Hattie's Hat and Greener Lifestyles, have also had run-ins with the suspect, but not all were reported to the police, Harris at Cugini said.

"You get so concerned about keeping business going that you think, 'Oh, it happened once, it's not going to happen again,'" Harris said prior to the Dec. 31 arrest. "This guy isn't stopping."

The arrest follows the Dec. 30 detainment of a man who police and Harris believed was the suspect.

Harris saw a man she believed was the suspect walking across Ballard Avenue toward Leary Avenue. Two plainclothes police officers were dispatched and confronted the man, Barry Amadou, at 20th Avenue Northwest and Leary.

Amadou said he is from Mauritania and speaks mostly French. He said he was walking to the bus stop after getting a job at Trident Seafood.

Amadou said he saw a man in civilian clothes pointing a gun at him, so he started running.

He said did not understand what the man was yelling at first because his English is not very good, but eventually understood and got on the ground, where he was handcuffed until his ID was checked and Harris said he was not the suspect.

Jim Frere, the plainclothes officer, said he pulled his gun because the man was a suspect and the man seemed to speak fairly good English when he was being questioned.

Harris said she was not satisfied with the police's response because it seemed to take a lot of convincing to get the police dispatched on Dec. 31.

She said it seems like crime has been on the rise in recent months in Ballard.

"A lot of people are moving into this area and it's like we're being swallowed up by this nighttime activity," Harris said.

She said Cugini's door window broken last month and has noticed an increase in vandalism and drug dealing on Ballard Avenue in the past few months.

Linda Anglin, manager at Damsalfly, said she had a rack of clothes in the store slashed three week ago.

Durall said he has noticed more cars being broken in to.

Strecker said someone stole $400 from the Portalis safe about a month ago, the first time anything has been stolen from the safe in six years.

In the past month Caf/ Besalu was burglarized and the Lockspot Caf/ had its ATM stolen. The safe was stolen from Tigertail in September.

Business owners in Ballard have suggested chipping to hire a security guard to patrol Market Street and Ballard Avenue at night, Harris said.