Owl: synonym for burglar.

OWLING, Eng. law. The offence of transporting wool or sheep out of the kingdom.
2. The name is said to owe its origin to the fact that this offence was carried on in the night, when the owl was abroad.

Yes, I am trying to be clever.  Thank you for noticing.

In an earlier post, I revealed the one crime reported so far tied to Occupy Olympia.  I heard of the incident through the grapevine, and confirmed it by calling and talking to the victim, the owner of the Olympic Wine Merchant.  As of yesterday, when I posted about it, the crime was a week old, and no mention had been made of it in The Olympian, our local paper.  Today, they finally talk about it, buried in an article that’s overall very positive toward Occupy Olympia.

Olympic Wine Merchant on Fourth Avenue, though, had a different kind of Occupy Olympia experience.

Owner Patrick Hub said his business was broken into and robbed about 4 a.m. Oct. 29. Three white males, thought to be 16 to 22 years old, stole 11 bottles of wine and later were tracked to Occupy Olympia by a K-9 unit. An Occupy Olympia member pointed out the general direction of the three suspects to police but they were not found. The case remains under investigation, Olympia police Sgt. Dan Smith said.

Occupy Olympia has a no illicit drugs, alcohol, dogs off leash or violence and aggressive behavior policy.

About nine bottles of wine were returned to the store and Occupy Olympia also took up a collection, raising $500 for the damage done to the store’s door. They delivered the money to Hub last Tuesday, he said. “It had nothing to do with them,” Hub said about Occupy Olympia. “I appreciated that they acted with some concern and responded in a thoughtful and considerate manner. I don’t hold it against them at all.”

That’s pretty much what I heard about the incident, with two major exceptions.  One: both the grapevine version, which originated with police officers who responded to the incident, and the shop merchant, who I talked to directly, said that it was  “three guys who were staying in a tent at the Occupy Olympia camp“,  although they were not considered part of the Occupy Olympia group.  Two: both versions agree the returned stolen wine bottles were recovered by the Occupy Olympia folks from a tent there.  The Olympian’s version obviously glosses over these two points, but there’s still room for them in the gaps in the story.

Now, assuming the gossip mill and the shop owner are correct, and The Olympian is just leaving out facts inconvenient to their happy little narrative, there are two groups staying at the Occupy Olympia camp that Occupy Olympia does not claim, yet embraces as fellow travelers.  One is the homeless, the other is the anarchists.

My guess is that the offenders were among the anarchists, a fluid group that’s been involved in vandalism, violence and theft here before, and who have participated in just about every leftist march and protest in town in the last few years.  They had a tent at Occupy Olympia from the very beginning.  Occupy Olympia did their best to distance themselves from the anarchists message (ie F_**k the Police) yet allowed them to stay for weeks.  There is no way that Occupy Olympia could not know who they were.  I certainly can see why the Occupy Olympia folks would like to deny the anarchist’s involvement with them, but it just isn’t plausible.  They allowed it, they own it.