Robbery, stolen car lead to charges

A 21-year-old Bainbridge Island man faces two felony charges in Kitsap Superior Court on suspicion of a robbery at gunpoint and a car being taken last December, after being arrested this week, in part, due to evidence police found posted to his Instagram account.

A resident in Bainbridge Island’s Lynwood Center neighborhood reported a home invasion robbery just before noon on Dec. 13, 2023, after three masked men dressed in black entered her home, pointed guns and threatened the woman and her son, who was not present, and demanded cash, according to a probable cause statement for the suspect’s arrest. One of the three was wearing blue jeans, the victim told Bainbridge Island police officers. The thieves took about $3,200 in cash, the homeowner told BIPD officers, along with two notes of Japanese yen, one for 10,000 yen (worth about $66 U.S. dollars), the victim’s phone and her purse.

That same day, Bainbridge Island police received a tip from a resident who had been standing outside a Thai food restaurant on Fletcher Bay Road, about 30 minutes before the Lynwood robbery was reported to have happened. The individual watched three men dressed in black, with one wearing blue jeans, remove the front license plate and other stickers from a black Acura. The bystander took photos because he thought it looked suspicious, and provided them to Bainbridge police.

Six days later, on Dec. 19, an officer saw the same black Acura parked at Battle Point Park. The car was unoccupied, but an officer approached and noticed paperwork from a 2016 Kia Soul laying on the ground outside the car. When the car’s owner, Grant Theodore Hoff, approached, an officer asked about the paperwork on the ground, and also asked about a purse visible in the Acura’s backseat. Hoff denied knowing anything about the Kia, and allowed the officer to inspect the purse, where a clear plastic bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms was found, according to a probable cause statement for Hoff’s arrest. The officer noted Hoff ’s white pants, described in the police report as “distinctive” with black and blue stripes at the knees.

The same day, Dec. 19, the victim of the home invasion contacted police. The woman connected police with an individual who knew Hoff, and that person showed police an Instagram post. The social media video, posted sometime between 11 p.m. on Dec. 18 and 8 a.m. that morning, shows an individual wearing white pants with black and blue stripes on the knees at the wheel of a Kia with a damaged steering column. A voice in the video mentions “Kia boys,” referencing an online trend related to stealing cars, and shows video of the Kia rolled over at a site on the southern end of Bainbridge, where it was soon found, along with a voice saying he would be leaving the scene.

Back at Battle Point Park, the mushrooms found in Hoff’s car initiated a search warrant being issued. During a search of the Acura, officers found identification that confirmed that the purse in the backseat belonged to an island resident who had their car, a Kia Soul, stolen sometime overnight. Police also checked a backpack in the front seat of the car, where another bag of mushrooms was found along with Hoff ’s wallet, which contained two Japanese yen notes, one of them for 10,000 yen. Hoff also eventually told the officer that the

Kia Soul was at a site on the south end of the island, where it was found.

Police later learned of a similar robbery had occurred about two weeks earlier, on Dec. 8 in Suquamish, where three men in black entered a home and demanded cash from a victim. A witness in that case had described the three men leaving in a black car that matched the Acura’s description. After obtaining a search warrant for Hoff’s cell phone records, police discovered that Hoff had been near the site in Suquamish on Dec. 8 minutes before that victim called 911. The phone was also in the vicinity of the Lynwood Center home at the same time the robbery was reported there.

Hoff was arrested by Bainbridge Island police at his home on Tuesday, booked into Kitsap County Jail and charged in Kitsap Superior Court on Thursday with first-degree robbery and a second-degree charge of taking a motor vehicle. Hoff entered a plea of not guilty at an arraignment Thursday and Judge Tina Robinson set a trial date of April 22.

Bainbridge Island police confirmed that other suspects are being sought in connection with the robberies reported, and the investigation is ongoing.