SPD fires community liaison suspected of selling stolen items, timesheet fraud

A months-long criminal investigation captured a shoplifter repeatedly entering Habtamu Abdi's store with pilfered goods and leaving empty-handed.

The Seattle Police Department terminated its East African Community Liaison after discovering evidence that he resold items stolen from a nearby Rite Aid and spent up to 40 hours monthly at his convenience store while on the clock, according to a report released earlier this month.

Last year, Rite Aid alerted SPD that a repeat shoplifter was stealing products and selling them up the street to a convenience store and car wash owned by Abdi. The loss prevention employee provided pictures of the stolen items on his store's shelves still in Rite Aid packaging.

SPD’s Major Case Task Force set up a surveillance camera outside his car wash and observed the location from April 2023 to March 2024. They saw a vehicle registered to Abdi arrive at the location several times weekly while he was working and remain for hours.

Detectives also spotted the shoplifter repeatedly entering the store with her hands full of items and leaving without them. The SPD detective interviewed the woman, who confessed to selling shoplifted items to Abdi. She said she mostly stole cleaning products for Abdi to use in the attached car wash.

The task force also attempted a controlled buy, but Abdi refused to purchase the items. He later told an Office of Police Accountability investigator that the shoplifter’s sister had tipped him off that SPD was doing a sting.

Though the shoplifter agreed to cooperate with detectives, the task force ultimately lost contact with her and scuttled the investigation. However, ample evidence showed that Abdi had stolen at least $11,400 worth of city time.

Unaware that SPD had surveillance cameras on his building, Abdi claimed he only went there for 30-minute lunch breaks between doing “outreach” in the community.

The Office of Police Accountability did not sustain allegations that Abdi violated the law because the “sole person directly implicating [Abdi disappeared and had shakey credibility at best.”

It sustained dishonesty and unprofessional conduct allegations, arguing that there was overwhelming evidence that Abdi falsified his weekly reports by claiming that he was at community meetings when his vehicle was parked at his business.

Abdi was hired in 2015. He’s been investigated for various allegations, including that he attempted a “straw purchase” at the department range and retaliated against another Ethiopian over a political dispute. Abdi made $120,827 in 2023.