West Seattle, Washington
30 Sunday
(above photo by WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli) North of The Junction, reconstruction is back in high gear at 4132 California, the live/work units (city project page here; developers’ project page here) that were under construction when a huge early-morning fire (below photo by Garrett Burke) destroyed the project August 17th. Investigators declared it arson but so far as we know have never made an arrest (hotline for tips: 800-55-ARSON).
Though we are devoting 99% of WSB to storm reports today (please e-mail us anything you’ve seen/heard), this just came in as a comment on last week’s peeper thread, and we wanted to make sure you knew:
Seems the same peeper struck our neighbors last night 12/2/07 3800 block of 49th Ave SW.
There was a peeping Tom outside our neighbors houses off & on for about 2 hours last night. Neither house knew of the other’s peeper until about 10:00 pm. Apparently he had ‘visited’ one & watched while the couple were hot tubbing a couple of hours earlier, ‘visited’ the neighbors kid’s room window across the street & waved at him about an hour after the first visit, & then back to look into the hot tubber’s bedroom about an hour after that. At about 10:00 is when the kid saw him return to 1st visit’s house & notified his dad. Needless to say, the police came shortly.
Unfortunately, not much could be I.D.’d. ~ 5′9″ – 5′ 10″, slender build, all in black ( or at least dark clothing).
Police have stated & my husband has read that he has been around the neighborhood for about 5 weeks now and his territory seems to cover from Admiral to Genesse & from 45th to 53rd.
My observation: it was pouring rain for those few hours. The person is either persistent with foul weather gear or lives close enough to go home & dry the clothes before going back out.
Just out of the inbox, from Stephanie (who lives slightly north of the Home Depot area of Delridge, for your frame of reference):
I was hoping you could post this as a warning to all those living on Delridge. I woke up this morning to my neighbor telling me her car and another neighbor’s car were broken into last night. The criminals broke the windows to get into the cars. It must have taken place early this AM since I came home late last night and saw nothing wrong with their cars. This is really upsetting that people would stoop this low to break into cars. So I guess all we can do is make sure our cars are locked, nothing is left in the car, and we watch out for one another.
We heard earlier today that the Seafair Pirates’ stolen cannons had been found – but didn’t know till this P-I Big Blog post tonight (last item) that the discovery was apparently made somewhere in West Seattle. Found a little more info in this press release linked from the Pirates’ website; it says the cannons were turned in to the Southwest Precinct. The Pirates plan to present a reward tomorrow to the man who found them, identified in their press release as Jim Love; don’t know if he’s from WS, though public records do show a James Love here on the peninsula.
After yesterday’s report about one “peeper” reported in two West Seattle neighborhoods last Saturday night, this e-mail came in from WSB reader “L”:
I am a resident from the Andover/46th block. After reading and hearing about the peeper from this past weekend I was reminded of my own experience this past August 14th. I was awakened in the early morning hours, 1:30 – 2:30, by a strange noise and when I went to investigate saw a man standing at my sliding glass door. I called 911 and the police arrived and searched our yard but found no traces of the man. I was alarmed last night to find that these peeper reports are in close proximity to our address. Hopefully the police are taking notice and patrolling our neighborhood a bit more often than normal.
We are working on obtaining more information about last weekend’s incidents and will of course report whatever we find out.
Thanks to WSB community member “k” for catching this just posted by the P-I: police on the lookout for someone reported peeping into two separate West Seattle homes on Saturday night – here are the locations (click each blue marker for address specifics):
Over the weekend, this reader report sparked a discussion about curbside freebies. Today, we got e-mail from JG, wanting to share an alert about a curbside-donation thief:
Please tell people not to put out their pickup for Northwest Center until 7:30 am or a little before. I had mine out the night before and was woke up with headlights coming in my bedroom and saw a white car, late 90’s or early 2000’s model with a sunroof, stealing my donation. The passenger that took my donation was a girl with brown hair to her shoulders or a little longer. I should have gotten up right away but I hesitated for a couple minutes, then got in my car to see if I could find the car and get the license plate number. I know probably a stupid thing to do but I didn’t find them. This was around 1:30 last night.
We asked JG a couple followup questions — what was in her donation? (clothes & shoes) was it clearly marked as a donation so this wasn’t a case of someone mistaking it for a freebie? (yes, it had the Northwest Center tag on it). So … consider yourself alerted.
WSB reader Patrick e-mailed that photo today with this eyewitness report: “Yesterday about 6 police cars pulled up at Chief Sealth when students were let out; they questioned 2 students for about 15 minutes, looked in the bushes where they were questioned, and let them leave.” We don’t have information on what that was about — but it reminds us, you might not have heard about the survey released just before City Hall shut down for the 4-day holiday weekend: It’s the “biennial survey of attitudes toward police” in the Neighborhood Policing and Crime Survey Report. Here’s the page where you can find a link to the complete report as well as various summaries. We browsed it to look for West Seattle specifics; not many of those to be had, but we were quite interested in page 13 of the report, where traffic offenses and graffiti/vandalism — both discussed extensively, repeatedly, here at WSB — were identified as the crime problems noticed most frequently by citizens. On a related topic, WSB reader LyndaB passed along word that everyone is invited to the Police Chief’s Citywide Advisory Council meeting on December 11th (6:30 pm, West Precinct, which is actually downtown) to get details on the Neighborhood Policing Staffing Plan that the police department will start implementing in January.
Police are looking for a man who jumped a jogger late yesterday: reports here and here. She got away OK; he unfortunately got away too and was described in the tv report as “25 to 35, about 5-7, light brown hair, possibly balding … wearing a white, oversized sweatshirt with a pattern on it, and gray sweatpants.” The attack location is described only as “a trail in the south end.”
Just out of the inbox, from Meg:
Just wanted to let you know that my truck window was smashed outside my house (Marine View Dr SW, Arbor Heights), last Monday night. Our street has experienced a fairly regular stream of crime over the last year or so, so maybe someone else will benefit by seeing a note on the blog. (The installation of motion sensor security lights and alert neighbors are always welcome.)
Paul Rimbey: Guilty. Sentencing is set for January 4. The other two suspects are set to return to court later this month.
On the day that Gee is auctioning off what’s left (minus vehicles) of the ex-Huling dealership contents (see post below; here’s what’s on the block for day 2 tomorrow) … the man prosecutors say was victimized by ex-Huling employees is testifying in court.
Just a few simple words from the Arbor Heights family of Amanda Knox — but they had to put it out on a public relations press release service (PR Newswire), since the European media in particular is in a frenzy over this case. A judge in Italy ruled a few hours ago that Knox would remain in jail, along with the other suspects, while investigators continue to sort the case out. Interesting side note from this Times article on logistics assistance for Knox’s mother, who is now in Italy, to deal with what’s going on.
One week ago tonight, West Seattle bicyclist Peter McKay was shot while riding on Delridge, not far from his home. No one is under arrest yet, but local groups are doing what they can to change that: Read here and here about Seattle International Randonneurs and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington raising more than $5,000 so far to give somebody the impetus to bring the culprits in. (If you want to donate, all three of the links in the preceding line will send you to the right place.)
If you missed it in the comments on this post – “k” says there’s a community meeting tonight regarding the Westcrest Park concerns. 7 pm @ Sonrise Evangelical Free Church at 610 SW Roxbury (map).
In the past week, we’ve been talking here on WSB about a recent wave of graffiti/tagging vandalism in the Alki/Beach Drive areas, including railings and bulkhead concrete in this area just south of Alki Point (deliberately shot wide so as not to showcase the tags), reported by Betsy the other day:
We’ve also received word of a particularly ugly tag, one of those crowns, thrown up on the restroom building at Whale Tail Park. There is on occasion some headway made against these crimes, such as the tale of two tweens caught in the act (noted briefly here). But invariably, these vandalism reports come in with the question, what to do about it, and who to call? Comment #5 from LGS below last Friday’s post has the detailed information, excerpted here:Read More
Thanks to reader tip: The Seattle woman held in a European murder case (British newspaper story here) lists West Seattle as her hometown on MySpace. One public database check would seem to correlate.
Peter McKay, the West Seattle bicyclist who survived getting shot on Delridge last week, updated his blog early today. He writes that he rode to work and back yesterday, and also shares many gracious words of appreciation for the people who took care of him, as well as for the vast majority of drivers who share the road with him without actions such as those taken by whoever shot him (still no arrests reported). P.S. The City Council has now approved the Bicycle Master Plan. This map shows what’s in it for West Seattle.
Just out of the WSB inbox, Betsy writes:
Someone sprayed graffiti on the end of the guard rail on the beach side of the road at the corner of Alki Ave. and Beach Drive recently, and today I discovered that they’d also tagged the slope of the retaining wall on the beach just down the sidewalk of the boat landing area. I really hate this stuff. It’s Seattle Parks property, but if I call them will they just come out with some gray paint and cover it? That’s just as ugly and attracts new taggers just as the original graffiti does. Do any of your readers know if paint remover will work on metal and concrete?
Peter McKay tells the frightening story on his blog. His account doesn’t mention West Seattle or the shooting location, nor was there a 911 call about an assault with weapons (apparently medics were called to his home), so this didn’t hit our radar till the P-I just posted about it, saying it happened on Delridge near Barton this past Thursday night.
Angela e-mailed WSB to ask if what happened to her happened to anyone else:
I don’t have photos yet, but someone sprayed our neighborhood on 59th between Alki Ave and Admiral with graffiti. Our garage was hit Halloween night, and now there’s a giant silver crown on the garage door. The same crown was painted across the street at the playground as well.
I’m curious to know if anyone else “got tagged” Halloween night?
I just moved here a month ago thinking this was a great area to live in, and I still feel that way, despite the murder that took place at the end of our street and recent vandalism.
DOG OWNERS, TAKE HEED: A post on the Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area Yahoo! group says Animal Control officers were at the park this week citing owners of license-less dogs. (The crackdown’s been under way citywide all year.)
BEACH DRIVE RESIDENTS ON ALERT: Beach Drive Blog shares a warning about car prowlers.
END OF AN ERA: We didn’t realize how sad we are going to be on Election Day until we saw the phrase in “print” in the online version of the newsletter for Fauntleroy Church, which plans a bake sale and bazaar for visiting voters (and others) that day and begins its pitch for volunteers this way: “For this last in-person election ever in King County …” BWAAAA! Seriously, we’re sad. We’ve voted in person every election, every place we’ve ever lived, since the very first elections for which we were eligible after turning 18, and as you have probably figured out by now, that wasn’t exactly yesterday. For some, trying to carve out time to get to “the polls” may have been a hassle, but for us we always found a way to make it a wonderful ritual and a time to remember how lucky we are. Sitting at the cluttered table marking up the ballot at our leisure just won’t be the same.
At the court hearing we reported on last week, the lawyer for the 17-year-old suspect in the October 13th fatal shooting at 59th/Admiral said he would argue for his client to be set free on his own recognizance, released to “home detention,” or at least for his bail to be reduced. Then, earlier this week, we told you the lawyer’s rationale for that request — he contends his client was sexually abused for years by the man he is accused of shooting, has no history of violence, and would not be a danger to the community. Today, we have just learned from court documents posted online that King County Superior Court Judge Michael Trickey did grant a bail reduction earlier this week — cutting the amount of bail the suspect would have to post to get out, from the original $500,000, to the new amount of $200,000. However, according to the online jail roster, he is not out yet. He’s due back in court next Wednesday.
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