That’s apparent from the deluge of car break-in reports we’ve received today – one from north West Seattle, two from south – and one WSB’er says even the police were surprised by what was taken – read on:Read More

First, an update on the recurring homophobic graffiti in the Morgan Junction/Lincoln Park area (same 3-word phrase that is too vile to post here). We reported its reappearance last month; then in the past few days, we’ve received three more reports, including the tennis courts near Lincoln Park and a business sign in south Morgan Junction. To recap – there was an arrest after the first wave of this vandalism last May, and a suspect was charged in Seattle Municipal Court, but the charges were dismissed because he was found mentally incompetent; an evaluation was recommended. What happened after that is not a matter of public record, for medical privacy reasons. Lt. Steve Paulsen of the Southwest Precinct tells us today that SWP officers are on alert to watch for the same suspect, to question him; their best bet (whether the vandal is indeed him or someone else) will be if someone catches and reports this vandalism as it happens.

Meantime, in a separate case, we also received a report of extensive tagging on benches, rocks and other facilities at Constellation Park south of Alki Point; no arrests reported. Investigators reiterate that if you see graffiti, please make sure that it IS reported: Graffiti at city facilities (such as parks) can be reported through this form. If you want to paint it out immediately, take a photo first – they are keeping a database in hopes of matching more crimes to suspects when arrests are made. Graffiti also is often discussed at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council‘s meetings; next one is next Tuesday, 7 pm, at the SW Precinct meeting room (Webster/Delridge).

The Southwest Precinct confirms West Seattle has had three incidents that are similar to a wave of dental-office break-ins in North Seattle; our fellow independent community-collaborative online-news site PhinneyWood reported the burglaries today (see their story here), saying the burglar(s) were after drugs and gold. Sgt. Jeff Durden says that shortly after they got word of what was happening in the north end, “West Seattle had a dental office broken into, and then another, and then an attempt.” This all happened in the span of about a week, and then stopped as suddenly as it started, according to Sgt. Durden. In the meantime, the precinct says, they worked fast to warn dental offices about what was going on. No arrests so far but it’s a high priority for detectives around the city. 1:01 PM UPDATE: New information – three people stopped by officers in West Seattle early this morning are now considered “persons of interest” in the dental burglaries. Sgt. Durden called back to say the arrests were made after officers saw the three acting suspiciously outside a dental office in the 5400 block of California around 1:40 am. Two of them were taken into custody in connection with unrelated warrants; the third was interviewed and released, while the investigation continues.

Six months ago (when we took the courtroom photo at left), it was a plea bargain to a lesser charge, and no added jail time. This time, 19-year-old West Seattle repeat offender Skyelar Hailey has pleaded guilty to two charges that call for prison time. We just confirmed with King County Prosecuting Attorney Office spokesperson Dan Donohoe that Hailey has pleaded guilty in connection with his most recent arrest, in the August 18th case that started with a purse theft from a West Seattle High School teacher, continued with items stolen at an acquaintance’s home nearby, and culminated in a foot pursuit involving police. (Full details of the incident are in this 8/23 WSB report.) Donohoe tells WSB that Hailey pleaded guilty yesterday to residential burglary and second-degree burglary; the standard sentencing range is 13 to 17 months, and he will be in court to find out his sentence on October 23rd before King County Superior Court Judge Greg Canova. (Hailey’s been in jail since his arrest two months ago, even though his bail was cut at one point from $25,000 to $15,000.)

Mark Hewitt, former owner of Tillicum Village, called with news that the native artwork that decorated the front of the former TV headquarters on Avalon Way (see left side of the Google Street View image above) is now gone; he noticed this around 7:30 last night. This photo taken a short time ago shows plywood where it was removed:

Hewitt says it’s a 6 foot tall by 1.5 foot wide piece of art that was designed on Vancouver Island, and he is offering a $100 reward for its return w/no questions asked. You can call him at 935-1413. ADDED 10:26 PM: We’ve received a better photo of the panel:

Three of the four suspects arrested in connection with the knifepoint holdup of the owner of Yummy Teriyaki are now charged with first-degree robbery – while the fourth, whose release from jail (after posting bond on $25,000 bail) we reported yesterday, is not charged so far, but remains under investigation. Since the three are charged as adults, we are identifying them: 17-year-old Bashir Mohamed, 16-year-old Burhan Mohamed, both Tukwila residents, and 16-year-old Abdisalam Yusef, a West Seattle resident. Prosecutors have requested their bail be set at $50,000 each. Court documents say Bashir Mohamed has cases pending for domestic-violence assault, malicious mischief and criminal trespass, while the other two have “no known criminal history.” However, the documents add, “… they are charged with a violent crime which appears to have been premeditated, as the victim was ambushed as he was closing his shop and in possession of the day’s cash. The victim’s credit card was used between the time it was stolen and the time the defendants were apprehended.” Notably to other stories we’ve covered, the documents also mention “an attempted purse snatch around the same time, same location, and with suspects whose description matches these defendants.” It’s not clear which incident that refers to – we will check tomorrow; besides the Gatewood purse-snatch attempt reported in this story today (which happened shortly before the Junction holdup, but more than a mile away), we also published word last week of a purse-snatch attempt closer to The Junction. As for the three charged suspects’ status, King County Prosecuting Attorney Office spokesperson Dan Donohoe says the three are scheduled to appear in court October 20th to answer the charges.

An update on the weekend holdup involving the owner of Yummy Teriyaki getting held up at knifepoint and robbed of the night’s take (here’s our Sunday report): The adult suspect in the case — who turned 18 in July — is out of jail; his bail was set at $25,000 at a hearing yesterday, and he posted bond hours later. (Thanks to Gatewood crimefighter “burglarbustindad” for the tip, as he continues to watch the King County Jail Register even more closely than we do.) We are not using the suspect’s name until he is formally charged (tomorrow is the deadline for that); he does not appear to have a significant past record. The status of the three other suspects – two 16-year-old boys and one 17-year-old is not known because juvenile records are not available online; next step is for charges to be filed. The paperwork we obtained from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office reveals a few more details in the case – the victim was accosted as he walked southbound on 42nd SW, where his car was parked in the 4800 block (that would be south of Edmunds); police recovered more than $500 in cash when they arrested the four suspects in the 7100 block of 32nd SW, along with cards belonging to the victim and a “small pocket knife.” A comment in previous coverage asked if the suspects were from West Seattle; only one (not the adult) has a WS address, and it’s about half a mile north of the arrest location.

Checking on this with police, but in the meantime we’re posting it fast in case these thieves are trying to work more area businesses – read on:Read More

You might remember a case from July that was particularly alarming because of what had happened days earlier: As covered here, a man broke into a Morgan Junction apartment early one morning and fled when its occupant screamed; this happened while police were still seeking the South Park murder suspect (who was arrested days later). The day after the break-in, police staked out another building a few blocks south of the crime scene, hoping to catch the suspect (here’s our story on that). Lt. Steve Paulsen from the Southwest Precinct promised to let us know when he was finally in custody – and we just got that news: He says the suspect was arrested yesterday in the Skyway area, on a $150,000 warrant for burglary. ADDED 11:45 PM: KCPQ has a report with photos of the suspect, Marcel Matthews. (We checked the jail register; he’s still in.)

From Greg: “Just a heads up that my house was broken into sometime between 11:00 am and 1:45 today on Charlestown St. Looks like they used a crowbar to tear through the door. The cops came by pretty quickly but the perps did take some items including a laptop, 2 rather large jars full of coins, and a Samsung HD camcorder. Now it’s off to fix things they broke.” He didn’t want to get more specific about the location on Charlestown than “west of California.” (map) By the way, the next West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, where you’ll hear about crime trends and get to bring up concerns to local police leadership, is two weeks from tomorrow – 7 pm October 20, Southwest Precinct meeting room.

This one, unlike our earlier report about the Junction holdup, comes directly from the business that was hit: Sometime Thursday night/Friday morning, Circa in the Admiral District was burglarized – manager Alphonsine tells us it was sometime after midnight, and it was discovered when the early-shift cook arrived at 7 am, to find a side door had been opened with a crowbar. The burglar/s removed the face of the safe and took cash/receipts – no one’s sure quite how much. This differed, she says, from the January break-in (WSB coverage here), when the safe was virtually empty. Nothing else was damaged this time except the safe, described as “beyond repair”; no arrests reported so far.

From SPDBlotter: Police arrested four suspects after a knifepoint holdup in The Junction last night, with the help of not only the victim, but also an alert neighbor who spotted something suspicious. The report says:

… the victim closed up shop in the 4700 block of California Av SW and began to walk to his vehicle parked on 42 Av SW. 4 males who had been hanging around the area came up and grabbed him from behind. The suspects held a knife to the victim’s mid section and robbed him of his daily cash deposit , his personal wallet, and cell phone.

The males walked back to their vehicle parked around the corner. The victim followed the 4 suspects and observed them get into their vehicle and drive away. He called 911 to report the Armed Robbery. At 11:43 p.m., a concerned neighbor saw a burgundy vehicle parked in front of his house. The occupants were throwing items out the window. He called 911 to report the disturbance. Officers quickly arrived and noted the vehicle and occupants matched the descriptions of the Robbery suspects.

The report doesn’t say how far away the suspects were caught (we’ll be checking). The items found on the ground included the victim’s credit cards and driver’s license; one suspect had cash, another had a check from the victim’s business. Police say all four were booked – three are juveniles, so they’re at the Youth Services Center; one is an adult and went to King County Jail. 9:13 PM UPDATE: Det. Renee Witt of the SPD media unit answered our followup note – she says she doesn’t have all the additional details we’re looking for, except that the robbery victim was affiliated with “the teriyaki place in The Junction,” which in the block in question would be Yummy Teriyaki. She promises to get us those additional details when she has access to more documents in the office tomorrow.

Received a note overnight via Facebook from Debbie, who says:

I was nearly mugged on the corner of Hudson and California [map] at 9:45 pm! Someone tried to grab my purse off my shoulder while my friends and I were walking by; they unfortunately misjudged my ferocity and failed.

Meantime – we also have two West Seattle Crime Watch alerts that came in this week but hadn’t been included in a roundup yet – a “walk-in break-in” and a car prowl – (added 9:20 am, also a third – another car break-in report that just came in) read on:Read More

A two-part crime case here in West Seattle turns out to be a three-parter — so far. First, you’ll recall the armed robbery at Westside Pharmacy on September 16 – the day after its pharmacy operations officially closed so they could move to the new QFC. Two days later, police arrested the suspect – after he bolted from them and jumped onto the playground at Schmitz Park Elementary. Now, it’s reported that after 23-year-old suspect Tyler Ljubich‘s first hearing, King County District Court Judge Janet Garrow let him out of jail. Police had an arrest warrant for him again on September 24 and went to a relative’s home east of Me-Kwa-Mooks to take him back into custody. (A neighbor e-mailed us that day about a sizable police presence in that area; it’s the same place police went to get him on the 18th, about half a mile south of where he was finally caught at SP Elementary that day.) We checked jail records today to see how long Ljubich was free in the interim: The King County Jail Register shows he was first booked the afternoon of September 18th, the day of the capture on campus, and released the evening of September 19th, so he was out for five days in the interim. This time, he’s being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, and his case is filed in Superior Court. His criminal record includes two guilty pleas in 2007 – one to a drive-by shooting, one to domestic-violence harassment. (Full records aren’t available at the moment so we won’t be able to check till later to get details of those cases and his next court appearance in this one.) 1:53 PM: Photo of Ljubich added (obtained from state Department of Corrections).

ADDED 5:46 PM: The court records are accessible again – first thing we’ve found is one of Ljubich’s convictions from 2007 – he pleaded guilty to a drive-by shooting charge for what was described as a road-rage incident at 38th/Genesee – Ljubich was shooting at another car; bullets hit a parked car, but no one was hurt. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison; we’ll be following up to see when that sentence actually ended, and we’re looking into his other 2007 conviction as well.

Got word from Edgar of a hit-and-run crash at California/Dakota (map) around 5 o’clock tonight. He says

Witnessed a nasty hit and run on California and Dakota. White Ford pickup rear-ended a newer Honda and then went East on Dakota and South on 42nd SW (wrong way on one-way). Car had stopped for cross walk. Really lame. I reported it to police, not sure if they caught the creep or not.

Edgar says the people in the Honda seemed to be OK, though “the car was a mess”; the truck that left the scene had what he described as “extensive front-end damage.” 9:31 PM UPDATE: Got a followup note from Edgar – police called him to say “they caught the guy!”

Yesterday morning, thanks to WSB’er tips (see news? contact us 24/7), we brought you the story of 2 burglary suspects arrested on the West Seattle Bridge. This morning, SPDBlotter has just added a few details to the story – specifically, what else police found in the suspects’ SUV besides the shop saw stolen from the victim: “A bag of golf clubs, a large hard plastic tool chest, and a blue motorcycle.”

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and texted us about a startling sight on The Bridge about an hour ago, which appeared to involve someone getting arrested. We just checked with the Seattle Police media unit and they say that’s exactly what happened. According to Det. Mark Jamieson, it all started with a burglary report in the 3800 block of 46th SW (map) – a caller saw two men stealing things out of a backyard, including a shop saw. The caller gave police a description of the men and their vehicle, and it was tracked down on the eastbound bridge. Police held the suspects until the victim/witness could be brought to the scene to identify them, then, when positive identification was made, the two suspects were arrested. 3:50 PM NOTE: We asked Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen if the two have been linked to any other burglaries, since several passers-by say their SUV looked “packed full” – he says, “We’re still looking into that.”

(Saturday photo by Kevin McClintic)
On our way into the “Nickelsville” homeless encampment at T-107 Park yesterday afternoon to cover its “1st anniversary” open house, we met Jason Douros, co-owner of Revolution Coffee, which also had a big event yesterday – its re-grand-opening as a nonprofit. While talking with Jason, we admired the small battery-powered amp he was carrying, and he told us he’d been bringing it to the encampment weekly for music/church events. Then today, this note:

Just wanted to let you know, ironically, that my car was broken into this morning at my home here in West Seattle in the alley of 48th ST. [Admiral District] They broke my rear window out and stole the Bass and Amp I use to play down there (red Yamaha Electric Bass with a missing D string and a Roland Microcube RX amp).

No insurance to cover the window or the guitar. Dumb luck I guess, but at least I don’t have to replace the string.

Kevin McClintic happened to have sent us a photo of the musicians playing at yesterday’s event — that’s Jason, with the amp, second from left.