We heard it again at community meetings this past week – “car prowls,” aka car break-ins, remain the major crime category in our area. We don’t get incident details unless you share info with us, though, so thanks to Matt for this reader report:

Just in case you wanted to add it to the list, we had 2 of our cars broken into Thursday night on the 4400 block of SW Graham St.

Purse stolen from one of the cars and….. 4 tennis rackets, what a score!

P.S. Next crime prevention/safety meeting will be Tuesday, 6:30 pm, when the West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network meets at the Southwest Precinct – all welcome, whether you are part of a Block Watch or not!

It was not a good night to be visiting West Seattle, apparently. First, friends visiting Oliver at California/Massachusetts in North Admiral were the victim of bike theft – two bikes taken from a rack on their car:

I had a couple friends in town, they had (the bikes) locked to a bike rack (on a car) but the thief/thieves dismantled it last night or early this morning. The first one is a Fuji SLM 1.0 size small/medium, black and white mountain bike with a white Magura fork and Reynolds carbon wheels and Bontrager seat with a carbon frame and an integrated seat post. The second is a Niner SIR 9 size large, gold/copper color, with black Rockshox SID fork, carbon handlebars and seatpost, and Arch EX wheels.

That’s the one in the photo – they don’t have a photo of the other one. Let police know, and comment here, if you see either or both.

Also last night, another case of hit-run driver vs. parked cars. This time on Erskine Way just west of California, on the southwest side of The Junction: Seattle Police tell us six cars in all were reported to have been damaged – this happened around 2 am but we found some still along the street in clear sight long after sunrise – two are in our daylight photo following the overnight photo texted to us:

The texter said a roommate’s friend was visiting from Bainbridge and reported:

Woke up around 2 am to sounds of my car and about 5 others being completely smashed…the obviously drunk driver finally left his truck and took off on foot.

Police confirmed this afternoon that no one’s been arrested, though the “suspect vehicle” eventually was found, abandoned.

Finally, someone trying doors in Highland Park this morning was caught on video. Lawrence shares two clips from his home surveillance cameras:

And the second one has a slightly better look at the door-tryer (plus description information if you follow that link to the clip’s YouTube page).

Car prowlers who hit a neighborhood west of Morgan Junction apparently had no use for CDs. It’s a complicated story – this is from the first note we received from Grant:

On the morning on Tuesday, May 17, a neighbor in the Beveridge-Holly neighborhood (off Fauntleroy near California) found a container of CDs abandoned in front of her mailbox. The container holds ~10 CDs and they are mostly from a “Golden Age of Country” disc set. I also found three abandoned CDs on my yard waste bin. Suspecting car prowlers abandoning loot, I checked my security camera footage and found that at 3:37 am, three drunken-appearing men deposited a vodka bottle in my recycling bin and these three CDs on top of my yard waste bin.

A neighbor confirmed these are her CDs and so the men in the video who abandoned them are almost certainly car prowlers.

That neighbor subsequently said those were empty CD cases. So far, no one in the neighborhood has spoken up for the other CDs – but the neighbor who did ID the CDs recognized something else in the video: A white box that had contained comic books and some paperwork from her job, all of which was taken from her vehicle.

Then, Grant contacted us again before we finished writing this, to say yet another neighbor found this tossed-aside garage-door opener:

If you have any clues about the unclaimed CDs or opener, or the identity of the people in the video – please speak up.

P.S. Car prowls remain the top crime problem in our area, Southwest Precinct Capt. Pierre Davis told the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council again last night (here’s our story in case you missed it).

In Crime Watch this afternoon – Marie‘s bike has been missing since Saturday:

My bike was stolen from my apartment building at 2250 Bonair Pl SW near Alki Beach. The bike was in the laundry room in a secured building. The robber would have had to wait until the door was propped or had a key. The Kona was a gray mountain bike with “hybrid” tires. The bar handles had scratches.

Bicycles are often stolen to get from crime to crime, so you might spot one dumped somewhere, down a ravine, against a pole or fence – if you do, contact police.

P.S. Speaking of police, last call for tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm at the SW Precinct (2300 SW Webster) – come hear about local crime trends and ask about your neighborhood concerns.

Four reader reports from the weekend in West Seattle Crime Watch, plus a reminder about this month’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting:

INSTRUMENTS STOLEN: Another case of musical instruments stolen from a car. They may well already be up for sale somewhere – that’s what happened in another recent case – so Brandon, who plays in a band called Black Bone Exorcism, hopes you’ll be on the lookout. Here’s the flyer including his contact info. He says the gear all has “stickers and marker spots for settings …” A police report is filed.

TOOLS STOLEN: Leschi residents visiting West Seattle report that their Toyota Tacoma parked in the Les Schwab parking lot at Fauntleroy/Alaska was broken into on Saturday night “and approximately $2,000 of tools (were stolen) and some items of little monetary value but lots of sentimental value. Please be on the lookout for these that might have been tossed aside. Name ‘Solem’ written on some.”

WINDOW BROKEN: Late last night, around 10 pm, somebody broke a window on Reed’s car at 11th/Barton. “Nothing stolen, just a broken window. Filed a police report.”

SIDESWIPES: This might be a warning as much as anything else, Adam reports, if you park in this area:

Within the last week, I have seen 3 or 4 different instances of sideswipes of parked cars within one block of The Sanctuary (Lander and 42nd).

There were two (recently) that seemed a little bizarre. Both were on 41st Ave SW between Lander and Admiral. Police were on the scene at about 7:15 am when I drove by. What makes it strange is it seemed like the parked cars rammed into the cars parked in front of them and it didn’t seem like those cars were hit from behind. Both instances were on different ends of the block. Another instance was on Lander at the Safeway. The other happened in front of the Sanctuary on 42nd Ave SW.

WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL TOMORROW NIGHT: 7 pm tomorrow (Tuesday, May 17th) is the monthly meeting at the Southwest Precinct with your chance to hear about local crime trends and bring concerns to Seattle Police. WSCPC president Richard Miller also usually books a guest and this time, it’s a rep from city code compliance – which relates to issues including “nuisance houses.” The precinct is at 2300 SW Webster.

Recognize that man? A neighbor took the photos as he leaped off the fence and out of the yard where he’d been prowling, at Jennifer‘s home:

My husband spotted a prowler in our yard on 38th Ave SW (between Edmunds and Hudson) at approximately 6:20 p.m. today. Pretty brazen considering everyone was home and cooking dinner in a kitchen overlooking the yard! He was stumbling around in our garden and my husband yelled at him. Our neighbor happened to be walking down the alley and got these pictures of him jumping our fence to leave via the alley. He headed east toward The Mount.

Another neighbor who e-mailed us about this says police later found a knife in the area. If you have information about the prowlers identity, the SPD incident number to refer to is 16-166064.

Here’s what’s in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon:

STOLEN CAR FOUND BEFORE ITS OWNER KNEW IT WAS GONE: From Jesse:

I’m just writing to report that my car was stolen sometime early this morning from in front of my apartment. I live at the Overlook Westridge Apartment complex which has a closed gate and I live pretty deep into the complex so these people were scoping around looking for an easy target which owning a late 90’s Honda Civic I know my car is. The car was found this morning before I knew it was gone at the Starbucks Headquarters. It looks like they also stole some mail and some offerings from the local Vietnamese cultural center because the police found lots of envelopes belonging to them. They also left their tools, food, and drug remnants in the car. There is an open case with regards to this 16-165228. I hope that getting the word out will help bring these low-lifes to justice. My car is a black 1999 Honda Civic Ex with a dent in the passenger door.

FOLLOWUP – STOLEN PICKUP TRUCK FOUND: Alexandria sent an update this morning on the pickup truck whose theft was reported here on X. It was found, she reports in Renton, “still drivable but cleaned out.”

Next, three car-prowl reports, which follow SPD’s circulation of this quick video with prevention advice:

You can also find the advice on this page of the SPD website.

CAR PROWL: Mary Beth reports, “Just want to give my neighbors a heads up, smash and grab broken car window on SW Myrtle St [3000 block] sometime last night. Took the emergency bag.”

HIT AGAIN IN HIGHLAND PARK: From Ryan:

Just an email to get it out there that for the 5th time in barely over a year my wife’s Xterra had the rear window broken out of it and it was ransacked. Took place on the 8600 block of 13th ave SW. Previously my car was broken into twice, and stolen once. It really leaves you feeling totally helpless when it continues to happen over, and over, and over and SPD flat out says they will not investigate, and basically as I was told “filing a report will only generate metrics for us.”

JUNCTION CAR BREAK-IN: Also a reader report – this was spotted early this week:

Saw a brand-new Prius in the Mural Apartments parking garage with the driver-side window busted out. The automatic garage door was closed, but several exit doors connecting the garage with the alley behind the building were propped open, including the door connecting the garage with elevators to the residences. All of the doors connected to the garage along the alleyway are reinforced with a steel plate to prevent forced entry, but in the past few weeks I’ve seen those plates bent back, broken, etc. Seems like someone has been trying to get into the garage for a while.

The building is on 42nd SW across from Jefferson Square.

CAR PROWLED IN SEAVIEW: This happened yesterday and came in via text: “My car was rifled through between 2-6 pm … parked in the alley unlocked between 47th-48th and Graham/Raymond. I was in the backyard during this entire time and did not see/hear anything. Found my car with passenger front door open to the alley with both glove boxes’ contents thrown on the floor. About a dollar’s worth of change was taken.”

(added 4:23 pm) AND ANOTHER CAR PROWL: While this roundup was still atop our site, this came in from Barbara:

I wanted to let neighbors know that my car window was broken sometime during last night May 11th at 9000 13th Ave SW. A empty computer bag was taken.

P.S. Want to bring up neighborhood crime/safety concerns with local police? NEXT TUESDAY is your next chance, at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm Tuesday (May 17th) at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster).

Charges also were filed today in another case we’ve been following – the “brazen burglary” case from last Friday, in which a resident came face to face with an intruder in her residence near the Luna Park business district.

The suspect, 41-year-old Thomas L. Nebel, is charged with residential burglary. He has been in jail since Friday, with bail set at $7,500. Charging documents say this is his first criminal charge in King County, but he has a record in Snohomish County and “extensive criminal history in Idaho, Oregon, and Alaska,” with convictions including burglary, assault, battery, and forgery. The mugshot at right is from 1999, the only time Nebel was in Washington Department of Corrections custody, and so the only mugshot that was available for us to request in our state (we’re checking to see if anything’s available from the other states).

Elaborating on the reader report we published from the burglary victim, the probable-cause document included with charging papers says she arrived at her home around 11:30 am Friday after getting word the fire alarm had gone off. SFD found no evidence of a fire and left; that’s when police say the victim found Nebel in a downstairs bedroom. They say he fled the house and ran into the greenbelt, where neighbors saw him; he knocked on one neighbor’s door and asked to use a phone, saying he was being chased, but he didn’t call anyone, and subsequently hid in that neighbor’s house. Police were alerted and found him hiding in bushes by a balcony, with a backpack and bag nearby that didn’t belong to the homeowner. Police say the victim’s house had been entered via a broken window.

Another followup on the North Delridge gunfire incident last weekend: The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged 29-year-old Dale G. Hiller with first-degree unlawful-firearm possession and two drug charges, one for meth possession and one for cocaine possession. Hiller, as reported here, was arrested at Delridge/Genesee late Saturday night; In a followup Monday, we reported that his bail was set at $150,000 on Monday and he was released after posting bond hours later. The charging documents say Hiller lost his gun-possession rights after being convicted of second-degree assault in early 2007, also noting: “He has a lengthy history of gun crimes, drug crimes, and violent crimes.” The documents recap what we reported after getting the probable-cause documents on Monday, that a backpack and shell casings were found near the arrest scene; the former contained a .22 caliber revolver as well as drugs and cash that totaled, with what was found in Hiller’s wallet, almost $3,000. His photo published here is from the Department of Corrections; as we reported in the discussion following Monday’s story, he was sentenced in 2013 to 3 1/2 years for an attempted home-invasion-style burglary in Burien. The charging documents say that his post-prison probation (“community custody”) ended on May 2nd, five days before his North Delridge arrest. He is due in court May 25th for arraignment.

In West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon:

STOLEN PICKUP TRUCK: Alexandria reports the pickup shown in part above was taken early Saturday morning from the 7300 block of 28th Ave SW. Description: “’87 Toyota gray pickup with topper. The passenger-front parking light smashed in, red heart/love sticker on back of topper, and red tape over the driver-side tail light.” Plate B59337N, per @getyourcarback, which reminds that if you see it, call 911.

NOTES: In case you missed these followups to stories from the past few days:

-We finally know where the “crash and dash” stolen car in Saturday’s crash at 35th/Hudson was stolen from – Capitol Hill. The carjacking victim commented on our story last night; we subsequently obtained the link to Capitol Hill Seattle‘s report on the original incident.

-We added multiple updates to yesterday’s followup on the arrest following Saturday night’s North Delridge gunfire. The most-recent update: The suspect posted bond and got out of jail late last night. The comment thread includes some information we’ve found about his record.

Breaking crime news this weekend – and breaking traffic news – has gotten in the way of our usually-daily roundups of West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports. Until now. We have burglary, car prowl, and theft reports – and a followup from someone who has gotten some of their stolen stuff back.

BURGLARY ATTEMPTS: From Anne in Upper Fauntleroy:

We have just reported 2 break-in attempts at our home at 42nd and Thistle. One was on April 21st between 9 pm and 8 am, where they attempted to break off the lower garage door handle to pry in. The next day we had flood lights installed.

The second attempt was made on May 4th, this time the upper garage side door, door knob pried off but our steel door framing holds the extended deadbolts. Our neighbor thinks it was around 3:30 am, because their dog was trying to wake up everyone in the house. They let the dog outside and the dog took off, so the neighbors got in their car and encountered 2 men in a late-model Toyota Sienna minivan that is red or burgundy. They were wearing reflective vests and said they were doing construction work; one had a very thick Slavic accent. They left and then moved the van a few blocks away.

We have security sensors and cameras inside the house, so if they were successful, we will get a good photo to share. I just thought I would let you know, just in case someone else has experienced anything similar, or has seen this van.

CAR PROWL: From Steve in Gatewood:

Add us to your car prowl list. 41st & Holden, underneath bright streetlight. Nothing was left in car, they took a box of Kleenex and some loose change from the center console. We had a couple of CDs in the glovebox; those were still in car. Clear case of someone prowling for money or getting lucky with a hidden valuable.

The car was locked this morning, they may have used electronic means to get in the vehicle – late-model Nissan. Neither of our other two cars was hit, nor were our neighbors’ cars across the street.

‘IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TO STEAL AN IDOL’: An Admiral resident texted this on Saturday:

A sentimental piece of yard art was stolen from the front yard of my gray house next to Pizzeria 22 on College Street. It was an Easter Island-style head carved out of wood, about 2 feet tall. This may not sound like much, but it had very sentimental value and has been with me for decades.

Keep in mind, it is not a good idea to steal an idol. The hand-carved head has orange flecked paint on it. Someone now has it in their yard probably, unaware of the danger. And they should know that it is special and especially dangerous when placed in the wrong yard of someone who has stolen it. You still have time to return it to where you found it before your trouble starts. Look for a wooden carved Easter Island head with orange paint flecks.

STOLEN INSTRUMENTS, RETURNED: Back on April 21st, we published Maggie‘s reader report about musical instruments stolen while she and her partner were traveling through West Seattle. Today, we got a followup from her:

I wanted to send a huge thank you for posting our story/photo on West Seattle Blog. A man purchased two of our instruments and, after seeing the cases still had personal items in them, started looking up info on stolen instruments in West Seattle and found the info on your site. He contacted us and has returned both the guitar and the ukulele. We cannot thank you enough!

Two street robberies were reported to police early today, in The Junction and in South Delridge. We don’t have details of the latter but we do have information on the former because one victim’s mother e-mailed us, including what her daughter, 22, had posted to tell friends and relatives online:

“My cousins and I were walking home from West Seattle (Alaska) Junction to my parents’ house three doors down when we were robbed (at) gunpoint by four African American men in all black at 1:15 am on Glenn Way halfway between Oregon St. and Alaska St. They took everything we had on us.”

If you have any information, the SPD incident number is 16-158458.

The second robbery is on the SPD Twitter log as having happened at 16th/Barton, incident number 16-158586.

Two reader reports, the first one with video, the second one with gratitude:

(UPDATED VIDEO – same footage but better quality, provided by the burglary victims on Saturday)

The Admiral resident who shared the clip reports:

I wanted to let you know that we had a “hot prowl” early (Wednesday) morning in our house in the Admiral District. At about 3:30, my wife awoke seeing someone in our hallway. She was half-awake, but when she quickly realized it wasn’t me she shook me awake and started screaming. He took off down the hallway and jumped out of the same window that he apparently entered the house. The screen had been removed and it is the one window that doesn’t completely lock, (we will be fixing that today!). We saw that there was someone headed up the Hinds Street hill, west of our house. We called the police, who came pretty quickly and did a check of the area.

Our security cameras caught footage of the man, an African-American man in his 20’s, about 6’ tall, with tight corn rows, and was wearing grey sweats, sweatshirt, and high tops.

Recognize him? Burglary detectives would be interested.

Our second report is “the theft that wasn’t” – from a reader who did want to express appreciation for the person who did a kind deed:

I had a recent incident that I wanted to share. I had been expecting a package being delivered to my house. When it didn’t show up, even though the tracking info said it was delivered, I immediately assumed that it was stolen by those pesky package thieves. So I frantically called FedEx to see what they could do about it, if anything.

After verifying all of my info they told me that the package was accidentally delivered to someone else’s house and the person who received it contacted FedEx to get the package back to its rightful owner. As soon as I heard those words I felt guilty for assuming the worst and instead was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for that Good Samaritan. I wish I knew who they were so I could repay them. I am grateful that they did the right thing by returning it to FedEx.This incident is definitely a reminder that good things do happen and good people do exist.

Thank you, Good Samaritan!!

Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch – first, from a reader in Westwood:

Just to put people on alert, the noises around your garbage cans might not just be raccoons…

Flasher (freak sicko) sharing one source of his insecurities late Saturday night near intersection of Cloverdale & 34th Avenue SW.

Between 1 and 2 a.m. on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning, May 1) a half hour of what I thought were raccoons messing around the garbage cans in the pitch dark outside my window, turned out to be a flasher exposing himself, etc. The distinction between raccoons and pervert was ultimately revealed when said Freak climbed on a garbage can and illuminated the . . . proceedings with a flashlight. Police came, Flasher gone, People can be very weird. Per police: keep blinds and curtains closed at night, motion sensor lights are a good idea, call police, & don’t go outside to investigate on your own.

Also on Sunday … an attempted car prowl in North Admiral. This was sent on behalf of the victim by a neighbor:

(Sunday) morning at 7:30 am, she stopped a guy trying to break into her friend’s car on 45th Ave. SW (between Holgate and Massachusetts). The guy was in a silver car with black convertible top (maybe). Heavy built, possibly Samoan, mid to late 20s with a beard. Wearing a hat (not baseball cap). She could not see his license plate…

He was trying to access the trunk of her friend’s Toyota Corolla parked in front of her house.. she yelled at him and he casually sauntered back to his car. Nothing was stolen.

They’re wondering if anyone else saw this suspect.

And from Qiong:

Hi, we parked on 59th & Lander about 3 hours (Sunday, May 1st from 11 am to 2 pm). Our windshield wipers were stolen.

Also from that area of Alki, we’re still working on a followup to Saturday night’s shooting. SPD media relations was not able to get us the report narrative today. Once we have it, we will also be pursuing SW Precinct comment on staffing plan for future weekend nights.