Bellevue Police are investigating whether hundreds of items found in the tent of a man who died earlier this month at the Tent City 4 homeless encampment may have been stolen.
Officers responded to the encampment following a report the man had been found dead inside his tent at the Temple B’nai Torah site on the 15000 block of Northeast Fourth Street, said Bellevue Ofc. Seth Tyler.
Police recovered jewelry, purses and more inside the tent, and are now asking the public’s help in determining if any of it is stolen and uploaded a photo album to Flickr on July 2.
Polly Gray with Tent City 4 said the man was either in his late 40s or early 50s, and well liked at the encampment. She confirmed police did recover some items, but Tent City 4 did not note anything as stolen in its inventory.
“He was just a sweet, quiet guy, and one of the campers actually knew him from childhood,” she said. “He just had a seizure and died.”
View the Flickr album of recovered property here. Anyone who sees items that may belong to them is asked to call the police department’s nonemergency line at 425-452-6917.