Late in the morning of Oct. 18, employees at the Dollar Tree store on Auburn Way North called Auburn Police and reported that they’d just watched a woman stuff more than 100 items into her bag and purse, then make her way to the front door.

And when an employee confronted the woman, the employee told police, she picked up a plastic shopping basket, whacked him on the head with it, and ran off.

That is why on Oct. 21, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged 45-year-old Amber Dawn Dahl of Everett with one count of second-degree robbery, and why she is cooling her heels in King County Jail on $5,000 bail.

Here is what Auburn Police Detective Douglas Faini had to say about the incident in the Certification for Determination of Probable Cause, which the APD has since forwarded to the prosecutor’s office.

A 9:30 a.m. Oct. 18, an employee at the Dollar Tree Store, 1241 Auburn Way N., called the APD to report that a shoplift suspect had just conked him on the head with a shopping basket when he tried to contact her for trying to steal property. The suspect then fled north.

According to the report, while Auburn Police were en route to the store, they saw a woman who matched the suspect’s description carrying a purse that likewise matched the description, two blocks north of the store. When officers moved to contact the woman, she tried to run away, but didn’t get far.

The injured employee was transported to the place of arrest, where, according to documents, he positively identified Dahl. He explained how when he’d confronted her and tried to stop her, she hit him on the head with the basket, dropped the bag with the stolen items but kept the purse, and fled.

According to the report, the employee suffered pain to the left side of his head, and sustained a cut and scrapes to his left cheek.

After officers read Dahl her rights, according to the report, she was verbally aggressive with officers and refused to answer questions, but officers did find stolen store items in her purse.

According to court documents, this is not Dahl’s first offense. Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Alice Degen told the court at Dahl’s bail hearing that Dahl has pending charges for assault, obstruction, resisting arrest and theft out of Seattle Municipal Court; obstruction, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia out of Kent Municipal Court; a 2017 conviction for attempted assault in the third degree; an active warrant out for her arrest for pending theft out of Federal Way; and at least 23 cases with warrant history.

Her record also numbers misdemeanor convictions for malicious mischief in 2016 and 2017, attempted assault, disorderly conduct and abusive language, tampering with physical evidence, criminal trespassing, resisting arrest, use of and delivery of drug paraphernalia, obstruction, criminal solicitation, attempted forgery, making false or misleading statements, and criminal trespassing.