WWU student arrested in Sehome Arboretum robbery

PETER JENSEN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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Bellingham and Western Washington University police have arrested two students on suspicion of robbing another student in the Sehome Arboretum Oct. 15.

Derreck C. Opheim, 19, was arrested in his dorm room in the Ridgeway Complex Wednesday, Oct. 21, and was booked into the Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery and trafficking stolen property.

University police arrested Sean J. Heien, also 19, outside of his dorm room Thursday afternoon and booked him into jail.

Opheim and Heien allegedly approached a student on a trail behind the Edens Hall dormitory Oct. 15, threatened the student with a gun and a knife, and took his backpack and iPod before fleeing.

Opheim made his first appearance in Whatcom County Superior Court Thursday, and Commissioner Edwin Simmers set his bail at $100,000.

Opheim's parents addressed Simmers at the hearing, and said their son had recently undergone treatment for oxycodone abuse.

"I think this is a drug issue," his mother, Tammy, said.

Heien is scheduled to make his first appearance in Superior Court on Friday.

Police were able to connect Opheim and Heien to the alleged robbery because they sent text messages soliciting buyers for the iPod that night, said Randy Stegmeier, chief of the University Police Department.

A campus-wide e-mail sent out the day of the robbery notified students that an iPod had been stolen.

The next day, Bellingham police received an anonymous tip from someone who knew who purchased the iPod.

Police interviewed the person who paid $70 for the iPod, which had the robbery victim's first name etched on its cover, Stegmeier said.

That person said he knew the sellers from living in Edens Hall with them last year, but only identified them by their first names, according to a police report Senior Deputy Prosecutor Anna Giglotti read at the hearing.

The buyer said the sellers had lived on the first and third floors of Edens. University police searched last year's dorm records and were able to get the suspects' full names.

Police obtained search warrants for the suspects' dorm rooms, searched both and arrested Opheim. They found clothing and the knife allegedly used, said Mark Young, spokesman for Bellingham Police Department.

Opheim admitted to selling the iPod but said he did not steal it in a robbery and had it for at least year, according to the police report.

The handgun has not been recovered.

Stegmeier said both the Bellingham and University police departments had received numerous tips about the robbery.

"It was absolutely a community response to that (e-mail) alert," Stegmeier said. "This is exactly what's supposed to happen. It worked perfectly."