In the span of less than a week a 29-year-old Everett area man allegedly robbed four baristas at knife point in the Mill Creek area, detectives with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office and Mill Creek Police say. Detectives arrested the man Tuesday at his home where he lives with his parents and booked him into the Snohomish County Jail on four counts of robbery.
 
The robberies started on Dec. 9 at about 4:30 p.m. when the man allegedly drove up to an espresso stand in the 14700 block of Seattle Hill Road just outside Mill Creek city limits, demanded cash and displayed a large knife. After getting some cash, he drove off.
 
Less than 45 minutes later a barista working at an espresso stand in the 17900 block of Bothell-Everett Highway (in the Mays Pond area) also reported being robbed at knifepoint by a man matching the description of the first suspect.
 
Deputies looked for the suspect that evening but didn’t find him.
 
On Dec. 13 two more espresso stands were robbed by a man whose vehicle matched the description of the first two robberies (a green, four-door sedan).
 
The first robbery happened about 1:20 p.m. in the 15100 block of 35th Ave. SE in the city of Mill Creek. In that robbery, the barista refused to give the man any money.
 
The second one happened minutes later at an espresso stand in the 13000 block of Bothell-Everett Highway in unincorporated Everett. Again, the man displayed a knife and demanded cash, then drove off after getting some money.
 
Sheriff’s deputies used the pieces of information provided by the baristas to narrow their search for the suspect’s vehicle, which turned out to be a green Mazda Protegé. They found it Tuesday in the driveway of his Everett-area home. When deputies knocked on the door, the suspect answered.
 
The man told detectives he committed the robberies because he has an Oxy drug addiction and needed to pay off his debts to drug dealers.