Suspect arrested for kayak-powered burglary

By Oliver Lazenby

Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Blaine man after he allegedly burglarized homes and shuttled stolen property in a kayak between the 5400 block of Tsawwassen Loop, near Birch Bay Village Golf Course, and a nearby beach.

At about 4:25 a.m. on Saturday, June 10, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an unknown man in a Tsawwassen Loop home.

After discovering a man inside his home, resident grabbed a shotgun and ordered the man onto the beach, undersheriff Jeff Parks said. A sheriff’s office K9 unit tracked the suspect through the neighborhood, but did not locate him.

Despite the encounter, the spree continued.

Several hours later a woman said she had seen a man steal a kayak from a deck in the same block of Tsawwassen Loop and paddle south. A deputy in the area watched a man kayak up to a beach north of Birch Bay State Park, and approached him once he landed.

The suspect, later identified as Brian Bradley, showed the officer a stash of stolen property that included mail and a checkbook from the same block of Tsawwassen Loop, in addition to stolen property in the kayak.

Deputies contacted the mail-theft victim, who said she found the suspect in her house at 8 a.m. yelling, “Hello, hello.” He requested a glass of water and then left.

Bradley was booked into the Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of three counts of residential burglary, second-degree theft, third-degree malicious mischief, and possession of a methamphetamine.

An investigation currently lists six people as victims, Parks said, but the sheriff’s office is looking for anyone else who could be a victim. Bradley forcibly entered one of the victim’s homes, causing $500 in damage. The owner of a second kayak that Bradley admitted to taking was not identified.