Tonight’s WSB late-night followup — where things stand for three ex-Huling Bros. dealership employees arrested a year ago and accused of stealing from a mentally unstable customer in 2006. The trial date for two of them, Adrian Dillard and Ted Coxwell, has been postponed several times; the most recent date on record was today, so we dropped by the King County Courthouse downtown, only to find out their lawyers were filing a motion to postpone it again. We’ll let you know when a new date is set. (Dillard bailed out of jail last January, but Coxwell is still listed in custody on the King County Jail Register.) Meanwhile, sentencing is scheduled tomorrow — provided no last-minute postponement happens here too — for Paul Rimbey, the first of the suspects to go to trial; a King County Superior Court jury found him guilty of theft in mid-November, and he is expected to face at least three months in jail.

Out of the inbox:

My husband just went out this morning to find a car that was parked in front of our house on Charlestown egged (near 53rd). It must have happened sometime yesterday or, I’m guessing, last night. I know you guys have covered vandalism and stuff like this in the past, so I thought I’d pass the information along to you and see if others have experienced the same thing. It seems kind of random, as we don’t have kids and pretty much keep to ourselves. The car was a rental and had California plates.

As always, a reminder to everyone – don’t hesitate to call police when you see or hear something suspicious, and of course when you believe a crime has been (or is being) committed. In addition to 911, there’s a non-emergency line at 206/625-5011.

Continuing our new series of late-night followups whenever there’s not “new” news to report at this hour: We have continued to watch the case of the Alki teenager charged with second-degree murder in West Seattle’s third (and we hope final) killing of the year, the shooting in a car at 59th/Admiral on October 13 (as shown in WSB scene photo at right). In our last update on November 1st, we reported to you that a judge had granted the bail-reduction request for the suspect, from $500,000 to $200,000. (We stopped including the suspect’s name in our reports, as explained October 29th, because a key part of his defense is the contention that he was a victim of sexual abuse, molested for years by the man he allegedly shot.) Since that update, there have been several developments:Read More

Just back from the Southwest Precinct, where Lt. Steve Paulsen kindly made time to talk with WSB about West Seattle, its neighborhoods, its crime and safety challenges, and how all of us can work together to be safer, etc. While there, we took the occasion to ask for a followup on the “peeper” reports from a few weeks ago. Background — the first reports emerged on November 26 (our coverage here); then Dec. 3, we ran a reader report about another sighting, and on Dec. 6, another reader reported a police search with K-9 officers in the same general area. Lt. Paulsen confirmed for us this afternoon that those were all part of the investigation — not only did they bring in the K-9s after a “suspicious person” sighting on the night of 12/5, but they also assigned officers to patrol the neighborhoods on foot after those first reports in late November. Lt. Paulsen notes that no new reports have come in during the past couple weeks and says they have identified a potential “person of interest” but don’t have probable cause to make an arrest at this point.

As mentioned earlier, somebody smashed into the Chelan Cafe overnight. Here are two angles – first a WSB photo, second photo thanks to JenV:

Thanks to everybody in WSB-land who e-mailed about this after seeing the scene while passing by this morning – the Chelan Cafe confirms that a truck crashed into the building overnight, and “took off” after taking out the front wall of the lounge. However – the cafe is still open; just has quite the mess to clean up. We’ll have a photo up later.

Just out of the WSB inbox, from Jessica (thank you!):

Last night, our neighbors had their home broken into while they were out of town. The window was broken on the alley side of the home, and I’m guessing it was someone from the neighborhood who knew the homeowners were gone (given the silence of the dogs). The police found no prints (they used gloves) and saw “small shoe marks”. The burglars took smaller items that were quick to grab.

Last week, our neighbors across 35th Ave told me about 3 incidents of cars being keyed.

And we frequently see drug-activity at the 35th Ave SW and Roxbury corner.

It would be so helpful if people see strange activity to report it to the police as soon as possible. Hopefully this gets the word out in the South end.

That’s exactly what the West Seattle-based Seattle Police Department team at the Southwest Precinct would say – keep the non-emergency number handy, 625-5011 – and crime prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow would certainly add, set up a Block Watch if you don’t have one already. Another excellent resource for the area in Jessica’s note is the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety group; here’s the WSB report on their October meeting, and their upcoming meetings are listed here.

Per the P-I: Three months prison, three months “home confinement.” When this all broke earlier this year, he was reported to be living at his parents’ home here in West Seattle. ADDED AT 2:28 PM: Statement from the mayor, as posted on the city website:

“This has been a very difficult time for our family and today’s decision will help bring this issue to a close. While the next few months won’t be easy for any of us, Sharon and I know that Jake did the right thing by accepting responsibility for his actions and cooperating with investigators. We love our son and will continue to support him in the months and years ahead. I’d like to thank all those who offered Jake, Sharon and me their support and prayers. We are very grateful.”

Hope that’s not YOUR car. Sarah Davies spotted it and sent the photo along with this – we share it as an alert to anyone else who parks in the area:

I passed this car on my walk home today around 4 pm in the 2100 block of California Ave SW. Looks like someone smashed the passenger window and grabbed the stereo (along with any valuables) in broad daylight.

Sarah hadn’t reported it as of our e-mail exchange but we urged her to call police, which is also our reminder to you if you see anything suspicious (or overtly criminal, of course). Keep their non-emergency number handy: (206) 625-5011.

From Chris (thank you!):

I visited the gas station/convenience store at 35th and Barton earlier today, and the front wall of the store had been smashed in. The owner said it was a car sometime in the night, probably stolen. The store was open and he had a crew there making repairs, so I guess the business won’t be interrupted, but it must be costing him quite a lot of money.

We’ll go over to have a look in the morning.

(2:35 PM NOTE – even if you read this earlier be sure to scroll down, we have added one more recent report) ORIGINAL POST: First – the broken window at Puerto Vallarta in The Junction remains a mystery, according to the folks we talked to at the restaurant:

They told WSB they just came in one day a few days ago, and it was broken. You’ll recall, nearby Northwest Art & Frame suffered a similar break just after Halloween.

Meanwhile, several things that WSB readers wanted to call to community attention. First, this just out of the inbox within the hour:

Not sure if this is peeper-related (I’m guessing it is), but my husband came home late last night at 1 am (Thursday) and reported police combing the area with dogs at 49th and Charlestown (the location of the last peeper spotting). The search didn’t seem frantic (no chasing) – just like a patrol or something. I can’t find any other details – but thought I would throw it out there to see if you knew anything more.

We also have this report of something that happened last Saturday night:

Last night there was an attempted break-in of our home at 5600 block of 48th Ave SW. We managed to scare him off by turning on light and yelling. He was pushing on door and jiggling handle. He is wise to have left as I was prepared to shoot him upon entry. He had short hair possibly shaven and was wearing a vinyl jacket and jeans. 911 was called and a report was filed. Officer told us a few others had reported a man walking through their yard. Please be on alert.

And from the far south side of West Seattle, another reader who didn’t want to be identified wrote over the weekend (lost amidst the weather coverage, but we are catching up now):

In looking at the blog crime section, I thought it might be worth a post that there may be a trend developing of attempted or successful home break-ins in a several block area around 35th Ave SW and SW 106th Street. I am aware of two that were completed burglaries and one attempted break-in, occurring since mid-September up to a few days ago. Two happened during daylight hours when the occupants were away.

ADDED 2:40 PM: Stephanie originally sent this in last Sunday night and just reminded us (please forgive us) we hadn’t posted it:

I wrote you not more than a few days ago in regards to a car break in of my neighbors. Well, the criminals have gotten greedier. One of the people whose car was broken in to now had their apartment broken in to. The criminals broke a bedroom window and stole some high priced items. This was pretty bold because I was home as was another neighbor and we didn’t hear the glass break.

I find this very troubling because locks don’t seem to be enough. What will it take….. metal bars?????

Grrrr I am so upset for my neighbors and for the community of Delridge. Is there any sort of block watch along Delridge?

As we noted when posting Stephanie’s previous report, she lives north of the Home Depot area. We referred her to the Seattle Police crime-prevention resources including this huge list. And for everyone, our standard caveat: Always report suspicious activity to Seattle Police. Always. Even if it seems like nothing can be done, or nothing is/was done, having the incident(s) on record can help them identify trends, deploy resources, etc. And keep WSB posted on what’s happening in your neighborhood, good as well as bad, so we all can be watching out for each other as much as possible.