Man faces charges in Port Angeles burglary; police say suspect left behind ‘drug kit’

PORT ANGELES — Bail of $5,000 was set Monday for a 22-year-old man who allegedly left a personal “drug kit” containing small amounts of suspected heroin and methamphetamine Sunday at a burglarized house in west Port Angeles.

Michael Cole Groff, who appeared Monday in Superior Court, will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Friday on charges of residential burglary, possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.

According to the Port Angeles Police Department’s arrest report, a woman in the 800 block of West 12th Street told police Sunday morning that a black purse with her car keys, ID and credit cards was missing from her kitchen and that there were two bags of personal belongings that she did not recognize in her carport.

One bag was a stolen school backpack, while the other contained a metal box with syringes — one partially full of a substance police say tested positive for opiates — and a bindle baggie of white crystals suspected to be methamphetamine.

The bag with drugs also contained a journal with Groff’s name written on the front and a stack of DVDs labeled “Cole’s New DVD’s,” according to the arrest report.

Cole was arrested Monday at his Emily Lane home.

Cole said he could not remember anything from the night before because of the drugs he had taken, nor could he remember anything about a black purse, according to arresting Officer John Nutter.

Cole told Nutter that he knew he must have done something the night before because he had found the credit cards in his pocket when he woke up Sunday morning, according to Nutter’s report.

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