Three reader reports tonight in West Seattle Crime Watch, plus crime-prevention advice:

APARTMENT STORAGE UNIT BREAK-IN: From Erik:

On Sunday, July 1st at approximately 10:00 am, 2 very large black cases were taken from a secured storage unit at Youngstown Flats in West Seattle (4040 26th SW). The person/persons who took the bags would have had to enter the secured building, get through the locked storage room door and cut through the top portion of the storage unit. The 2 bags taken contained optical frames. They also took branded MCM and Calvin Klein gifts. If anyone saw anything, please reach out to SPD or myself at erikgorder@yahoo.com.

CAR PROWL: From Adam – “Car prowled last night, 50th Ave SW.” (4500 block)

PAINT VANDALISM: Another in the series of recent paint-on-car vandalism incidents, this time from Stephen:

My car was also vandalized on Friday night, right outside of The Westy [35th south of Kenyon]. Definitely the same color of paint.

We cropped the photo as we usually do, but this one, unlike the others we’ve seen, was a recognizable symbol – the circled A (for anarchy).

CRIME PREVENTION ADVICE: The latest bulletin from Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Jennifer Danner focuses on preventing a particularly prevalent type of burglary:

As you may have heard before, in the SW Precinct we have recently seen an increase in burglaries of outbuildings – including sheds and garages. In order to hopefully decrease these incidents – we wanted to make sure that we are providing our community with the best prevention techniques possible. Provided below is some information about what a burglary is, as well as ways we can help prevent these types of incidents.

Please keep in mind that I do offer free safety/security assessments- and if you are interested in this- you can contact me directly.

What is burglary? How is it different from theft?

-Burglary is defined by the Seattle Police Department as: when someone enters physical property (including a garage or shed), not his or her own, without permission, with the intent to commit a crime

-Theft is defined as: whenever property is taken

For law enforcement, there is a difference between burglary and theft and when you report a crime to 9-1-1 the language you use makes a difference! The Seattle Police Department distinguishes between two types of burglary- residential and non-residential. Residential burglary refers to the theft occurring in a dwelling, other than a vehicle (such as a private home or apartment) and non-residential burglary refers to the theft occurring in a commercial or non-residential building (such as a grocery store or clothing store).

How can we prevent burglary? Specifically, to out-buildings (such as sheds and garages)?

-All exterior doors should be strong enough to withstand force and should be secured with a deadbolt lock that has a minimum one-inch throw

-Try not to leave valuables (such as packages, electronics or cash) in plain sight through windows or doors

-The main entrance door to a home/apartment should have a door wide-angle (180 degree) viewer/peephole

-Make the home/business appear as if there is someone there by leaving lights, music and/or televisions on

-Install lights to be specifically directed and focused on entry points and vulnerable areas

-Secure and lock all windows and doors when leaving the premises- even if you plan to return within a short amount of time!

-Do not leave a spare key out

-Secure and maintain yard, patios and outdoor spaces- making sure you trim back all concealing shrubbery

-Check to ensure all garages and sheds are consistently locked with a sturdy lock

-Take inventory lists and photos of belongings in sheds and garages to ensure you know if something is missing

-Check sheds and garages regularly in order to report a burglary as quickly as possible

Another very important prevention technique for residential property crime is getting to know your neighbors and starting a Block Watch. Block Watch is one of the most effective crime prevention tools. Block Watch brings residents and law enforcement together to improve safety and prevent crime. Safety improves when neighbors watch out for each other by reporting suspicious activity and in progress crimes to 9-1-1. Crime prevention occurs when the opportunity for crime is removed and neighbors work together towards a safer neighborhood. If you are interested in setting up a Block Watch for your area, have questions and/or would like to learn more about this program- please feel free to contact me.

Jennifer’s contact info, plus other resource links, are in the PDF version of her newsletter.

Two reader reports tonight:

STOLEN CAR: From Stephanie: “My mom’s car [blue 2005 Honda Element, above] was stolen early this morning from South Park. License AMA4815. Has front-end damage only; there are zip ties where the front bumper goes.” If you see it, call 911.

PAINT VANDALISM: Another car has been vandalized with random squiggles of paint. Here’s part of what was done to Crystal‘s car:

She says, “My car was tagged with yellow spray paint (Friday) on 35th Ave SW near othello. I saw the same yellow paint on the food bank building, the bus stop outside of Walgreens and another car parked on 35th near Walgreens.” It also resembles what Rose reported less than a week ago.

Connor hopes you can help find his stolen car, taken from 17th SW, nearest cross-street W. Marginal Way SW: “It’s a Red Subaru Outback Legacy (1998), with a small chip in the windshield on the driver’s side and a USA Swimming bumper sticker. The plate # is ABE0627.” If you see it, call 911.

7:24 PM: Criminal charges usually take a few days to prepare and file – but the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office worked fast in the case of the man arrested Thursday in connection with the south West Seattle break-ins. 26-year-old Keelan T. Malone was charged today and remains in the King County Jail, bail set at $500,000.

The charging documents aren’t yet available but the jail register lists the charge(s) as burglary/indecent liberties. We did receive the probable-cause documents from the prosecutor, which detail the incident in which a woman awakened to find the intruder crawling on the floor toward her bed, then getting onto it and proceeding to grope her. At one point, the document says, the victim’s disabled mother, who lives with her and the victim’s 9-month-old son, opened the door and asked if she was OK, and the attacker told her to say he was someone she knew. She pleaded with him to go away and subsequently offered him money, which he took and left. He left his phone behind, came back for it moments later, and that, the report says, was the last she saw of him until spotting him “in the neighborhood” yesterday. After being arrested and taken downtown for questioning, the report says, Malone denied involvement, but then acknowledged physical contact with the victim, and subsequently “began to tell (police) smaller details of the incident that clearly showed he was in the residence (that) night.”

That’s all we have pending the availability of the charging document. The probable-cause document lists a Judkins Park address as Malone’s “last-known address” and later says he is “homeless with no known ties to the community.” But a police source mentioned that the defendant is a former college-football player and an online search turns up a man with the same name, same birthdate, born in Seattle, having played at Villanova University in 2010, 2011, and 2012. No criminal record is showing for Malone in this state.

SATURDAY, 4:44 PM: The charging documents are now online. The only new information is confirmation that Malone is charged with two felonies – first-degree burglary with sexual motivation, and indecent liberties. Both are in connection with the same incident. (This doesn’t mean he won’t/can’t be charged with any of the others.) He is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment – to enter an initial plea – on July 12th.

Three reader reports:

CAR BREAK-IN INSIDE GARAGE: From Parvoneh:

My boyfriend’s car was broken into last night in the Whittaker Apartments garage (Fauntleroy and Edmunds). They got into his trunk where he kept his camping and fishing equipment.

They stole his entire duffle bag full of stuff including fishing gear & hiking equipment.

Although I’m sure whoever took it will find a use for them, on the off chance someone finds a large Coleman duffle or Nike backpack, please let us know we would love to recover whatever we can.

GARAGE BREAK-IN: From Samantha:

I wanted to let you know of a break-in/theft that occurred (in the 1700 block of) Harbor Ave SW Wednesday night. Our building has ground floor storage units that are located in our secure parking area (surrounding walls/fence is at least 7′). Someone broke into our unit, our neighbor’s adjoining unit to our right, and cut through the wall in our unit to access the unit on our left. Despite only taking a few items from us, they must have spent a large amount of time rummaging through everything, as all of our boxes were pulled out and unpacked, and surprisingly roughly re-packed..

This felt really pre-meditated or planned, given the fact that a saw or similar instrument was used to cut through the demising wall (studs and everything). Additionally, the items stolen from our unit (were) a set of men’s golf clubs and tennis racket, but (they) left numerous other expensive items (skis, winter sports equipment, etc.).

CAR PROWL: From Mary:

Both my partner’s car as well as my car’s windows were smashed and car was rummaged through. We’re on 38th Avenue – just wanted everyone to be on the lookout!

We have a followup question out to ask where on 38th.

Three more reports to share before night’s end:

ANOTHER OCCUPIED BREAK-IN: Just before getting word of the arrests in the 11th/12th/13th SW burglaries, we were looking into another “occupied burglary,” early today in the 9000 block of 16th SW. But this wasn’t related, police told us – they believe the intruder was “looking for shelter,” entering a house that had a prior incarnation involving drugs, and his description was different – “unknown race,” 5’10”, slender. No arrest reported.

POSSIBLE BURGLARY ATTEMPTS: Anonymous reader report:

Location: 12th Ave SW between SW Holden St. and SW Kenyon St. (7700 block of 12th Ave SW)

I awoke at 5 am this morning and opened my shades. An hour or so later, I looked out my kitchen window and a screen was leaning against my garage door that hadn’t been there earlier. I went to my next-door neighbors and saw that the screen had been removed from one of their windows. I spoke with my neighbor and scary thing is that they were home during this attempt. It sounds like their dog barking may have scared the suspect off.

PACKAGE TAKEN: This reader report includes a screenshot from a brief video clip showing someone taking a package from outside an apartment at West Ridge Park on Delridge south of Holden:

The package contained work boots.

Not far from WSB HQ, neighbors were awakened by the sound of metal hitting metal, then a car alarm blaring – after a hit-run driver damaged that car parked on SW Thistle west of 42nd SW and took off. Police were called. The car was described as a silver Dodge Challenger and the damaged car’s owner tells us police might already have found it nearby. But they’re still interested in information – case # 2018-235713.

Be on the lookout for Scott‘s motorcycle, stolen from the 4200 block of 42nd SW:

The last time I saw it was around 8 pm last night and noticed it missing this morning around 630 am. It’s an carbon fiber (black) Yamaha R1. Hoping to recover in one piece. Incident # 2018-234490.

Plate 1F4988. Call 911 if you see it.

One reader report tonight, from Mark in Seaview:

FYI, a prowler hit my car last night and dug through all pockets and glove boxes. Most likely looking for cash. Nothing taken except a baseball cap. 48th Ave SW between Juneau and Findlay.

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

STOLEN BOWLING BALL: At right is Diana‘s son with his prized Denver Broncos bowling ball.

She left it in the car and it was stolen along with her Seahawks jacket.

“Santa” brought the ball, which will cost $250 to replace.

“I am hoping that it turns up somewhere, so PLEASE if anyone sees for sale on the internet, pawn shop, or anywhere else, PLEASE let me know.”

We don’t have the location of the car prowl or the police-report number yet; for starters, let us know if you’ve seen it and we’ll connect you with Diana.

CAR VANDALIZED: The photo and report are from Rose:

Westwood Village neighborhood. My car was vandalized yesterday. I have video which I will send later, have to wait for it to download. Wondering if this happened to anyone else in the area yesterday? Seems our car was picked for no reason, although it has Mississippi plates.

We have cropped the photo so as not to show the entirety of what was painted – it does not appear to be a tag or signature.

ROBBERY/ASSAULT FOLLOWUP: Saturday night, we mentioned police were investigating an incident at the Delridge/Orchard Shell mini-mart, which left an employee there injured after an apparent robbery. Today we requested the report narrative. The victim said it started around 11 pm, when what he described as “at least 30” people came into the store, grabbing food and drink items and knocking over stands containing some of those items. One person yelled something at the employee (it’s redacted – blacked out – in the narrative we received) and then threw a bottle that hit the victim in the face. Everyone subsequently ran out of the store, stealing the items they had grabbed. (If a shoplifting incident turns violent, it officially gets classified as a robbery.)

P.S. As we mentioned earlier, your next chance to bring neighborhood crime/safety concerns to local police, and hear their updates, is tomorrow (Tuesday) night, 6:30 pm, when the West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network meets at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster) – all welcome.

In West Seattle Crime Watch:

SOUTH DELRIDGE BURGLARIES: On Sunday and Monday, we reported on early-morning burglaries in the South Delridge area while people were home. No one asked police about them at last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, so we asked Capt. Pierre Davis if police believed they were related, and he said no. We heard from a worried neighbor this afternoon and she said police are now telling them otherwise – that at least two have similar MO’s, with the burglar coming into the resident’s bedroom. There have been at least four: Two reports in the 9400 block of 13th SW, early Sunday and early Tuesday; one in the 9200 block of 12th SW early Tuesday; and the one we detailed, early Sunday in the 9000 block of 11th SW.

CAR PROWLS: At least two overnight in 40th SW and SW Charlestown vicinity, per a brief texted reader report.

Two repeat-offender updates:

GREGORY L. THOMPSON: The Puget Ridge resident is now charged in the fish-theft case as well as with alleged witness intimidation, and he remains in jail with bail set at $325,000, a combination of current and previous cases. Charging documents tell the same story about the intimidation charge that we reported from probable-cause documents earlier this week – Thompson is accused of going to the home of the owner of a vehicle he is charged with stealing, and shooting out the vehicle’s window. But the charging papers also include new information about the saga of the stolen fish. Police found it while searching his house on a warrant related to the other case. Police say a purple Ford Explorer associated with Thompson left his house around 3 am Thursday and didn’t return until about quarter till 8 am (the fish theft is reported to have happened around 7:30). Early Friday, they served the search warrant at his house, but, the documents say, they actually arrested Thompson in White Center. At his house, the documents say, hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found as well as bb and Airsoft guns. Plus: “Detectives also located several large Styrofoam boxes marked Seattle Fish Company and at least 2 boxes containing 4 large cans of crabmeat stacked in the garage.” The charging document says this happened when Thompson was questioned about the fish:

Thompson initially denied ever being at the company. He later changed his story saying he was there and was with a friend named “Alex Harris” who had allegedly made a deal for the product. Later his story changed saying “Alex” was not with him. Thompson admitted to taking and loading several boxes into his truck and taking them to “Alex’s” place stating none of the product would be at his house. Thompson even went so far as to agree to recover the seafood from “Alex” if he called him.
When confronted with the fact detectives had located boxes of products from the Seattle Fish Company stacked in his garage and would like his consent to recover them, Thompson replied saying he would give consent if he could go home rather than being booked into KCJ, but otherwise no. A King County Superior Court addendum to the search warrant was completed and approved to recover the stolen seafood.

Thompson, police say, was never able to connect them with the mysterious “Alex,” who he said looked a lot like him. He remains in jail as of last check, and is due to go to trial later this month in connection with other cases.

NICHOLAS D. WATSON: When last we mentioned this repeat offender in a comment discussion, there was a warrant out for his arrest. Looks like police finally caught up with him. He is jailed in connection with three failure-to-appear warrants in two stolen-car cases and one burglary case, bail set at $125,000.

From the WSB inbox this morning, three bicycle reports:

STOLEN BLACK BICYCLE: Ender says this Specialized bike was stolen in an Alki shed break-in Monday night:

This happened near 61st and Admiral. Any info, contact police and email enderbgm@hotmail.com. (Added: Here’s the SPD incident # – 2018-223799.)

ANOTHER STOLEN BLACK BICYCLE: From Jessica:

We had a stolen black ‘Jaunt’ bike stolen last night or early this morning before 4:30am from our yard in the Gatewood neighborhood. It has silver accents with a rack on the back, black plastic fenders and a flower on the seat. It also had a small bag on the back with some bike wrenches and a combo lock… not in use at the time.

FOUND BLUE BICYCLE: Jean reports this one’s at 59th/Admiral:

We don’t have police-report #’s in any of these cases yet but will add any we receive on followup.

Three notes in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

SCHOOL ARREST: Thanks to the Madison Middle School parent who forwarded the audio of a robocall sent to families by principal Dr. Robert Gary this evening. No accompanying e-mail so far as we’ve heard, so here’s our transcription from the audio:

At approximately 3:55 pm today, in the front of the school, near the bus area, a student was taken into custody by the Seattle Police Department. The situation that the person was taken into custody for was unrelated to any school situation that occurred at Madison. At this time, we don’t have any more information to share. This is a police matter.

After inviting parents to contact him if they have questions, Dr. Gary continued, “Once again, Madison was safe the entire day; the student that was taken into custody was taken into custody by Seattle Police, and it was a situation unrelated to Madison Middle School.” Police online incident lists don’t show anything with Madison’s address so far tonight, so we have no cross-reference on the incident, but will be following up tomorrow. (TUESDAY UPDATE: SPD tells us the case stemmed from a dispute between juveniles. We are still trying to find out more.)

Speaking of followups:

SUNDAY MORNING BURGLARY ATTEMPT: We were tracking multiple incidents early Sunday; one of them was a burglary dispatch to South Delridge/Highland Park. When we looked at the log this morning, we found only one potentially matching incident, and requested the report narrative, which SPD provided as follows:

We responded to a possible occupied burglary call at 90XX 11 Av SW. I contacted the victim, V/XXXXX, at the front door. She said she was asleep in her bedroom. The bedroom is on the N/E corner of the house. XXXXX had her bedroom window (north side) open a few inches.. The window has a lock to prevent it from opening further. XXXXX woke up to a light shining into her bedroom. She looked up and saw a hand reaching through her open window. The hand was moving the curtains a little to the side. XXXXX screamed to her daughter, XXXXX, to call 911. The male moved away from the window and walked out the front gate. He left in a S/B direction. XXXXX did not get a good look at him but described the suspect as a B/M wearing all black. Other units conducted an area search but did not find anyone in the area. We checked the window for fingerprints but did not find any.

This evening, Tweets by Beat – which is catching up from having been down much of the weekend – shows there was another “occupied burglary” call in the 9400 block of 13th SW a little later Sunday morning; we’ll have to pursue that report tomorrow.

And finally:

GREGORY THOMPSON UPDATE: We reported last Friday on the arrest of 28-year-old Gregory L. Thompson on Puget Ridge; police said they recovered stolen fish while seeking Thompson in an unrelated case. No information on that case was available Friday but we’ve obtained the documents from his weekend bail hearing, which explain why he is being held for investigation of tampering. Police allege that last Thursday morning, he shot out the window of a truck he is charged with stealing, “in an apparent attempt to dissuade the victim from testifying.” His bail is currently set at $275,000 – $100,000 for the tampering investigation, the rest related to various cases in which he already is charged. Nothing related to the fish case so far.

Two items that seem to be more candidates for the “dumped and likely stolen” rather than our “lost/found/non-pets” section:

BICYCLE FOUND ON ALKI: From Mark:

A 19″ Raleigh C40 hybrid road/mountain bike was recovered along Alki (Saturday). Probably stolen. Respond with bike ID number and color scheme to alkiblockwatch@gmail.com.

SWIM BAG FOUND: From Todd:

We found this swim bag on our front lawn this morning. It’s sitting next to our front door for the owner. Our address: 4000 38th Ave SW

Two Crime Watch reader reports:

STOLEN CAR: A reward is offered:

I know it’s a long shot but please keep your eyes out- My husband’s car was stolen last night from our street in West Seattle (SW 40th Ave and SW Oregon). It’s a black Chrysler 300 with Iowa plates 599 WWI. Please contact 515-402-9823 with information.

And if you see it, call 911 first.

CAR PROWLS: From Sharon:

> Several cars on 34th Avenue SW, between Findley and Juneau, were broken into sometime between 6pm and midnight (Friday, 6/15). Tools and glove box contents were stolen. Be on the alert for car prowlers in the area. Police report has been filed.