[Josh]

... or proof Joe Six Pack wants Blu-ray.

Seattle police are investigating a Sunday morning burglary at the Northgate Silver Platters, where employees say thieves grabbed about 200 Blu-ray discs with a retail value of more than $7,000.

"They basically took our whole Blu-ray section," said Mike Batt, a vice president for the company that has four King County locations. "Genre didn't matter to them."

A store security system was triggered about 6:40 a.m. when a double-paned window was broken, according to a police report. The Northgate store has no video surveillance, but "there's no way this was all done by one person," Batt said.

Costs of players and discs have kept Blu-ray -- a format that can hold more than five times as much information as a single-layer DVD -- from being extremely popular, Batt said. Discs are about $35 each and Playstation 3 is the least-expensive player, retailing at $499.

"They seemed to know what they wanted," he said, adding the window was the only property damage.

The Northgate Silver Platters has had three previous smash-and-grab break-ins, with thieves taking about 20 CDs near entrances in two burglary cases, Batt said. In 1988, burglars grabbed all CD players at the Northgate store.

"Whoever did that was never caught," Batt said, who hopes other retailers will be alert if people attempt to return the discs. "The sad thing is the success rate of catching anyone is very slim."

There were 3,266 thefts from buildings reported in 2006, according to Seattle police records. Less than 8 percent of $2.49 million dollars in stolen property was recovered.

"There are burglary detectives for every precinct who are forwarded evidence and incident reports from uniformed patrol officers on the scene," Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said. "Burglary is a felony and each report is taken very seriously."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...ml?source=mypi