Crime Watch reader report: “Have you seen my car?”
Diane sent this, with that plaintive plea in the subject line:
On Sunday, July 27 someone decided they needed to remove my sixteen-year-old Acura Vigor from my driveway in Pigeon Point. I am hoping that it is sitting in your neighborhood taking up space. It is black with a spoiler on the back with a good-looking outside and a well-worn inside. The license plate number is 861RMX. If you have seen it, I would love to bring it home.
Side notes: According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Seattle’s auto-theft rate is #16 in the nation, with more than 24,000 vehicles stolen last year. The police department has an auto-theft-prevention webpage here, and crime stats by census tract (including car-theft breakouts) on an interactive map here.
As we celebrate neighborhood crimefighting, an honor for us and you
Seems fitting that hours before Night Out — when thousands of West Seattleites will be out with their neighbors celebrating community, crimefighting, and safety — we just got word of an honor that’s yours as much as ours – WSB is among the honorees for the annual Seattle Police Department Citizen Appreciation Awards on August 19. The information-sharing partnership that the Southwest Precinct has launched with WSB – and the time so many people in WSB-land take to send “reader reports” and other important information to be shared here with the community at large – is really a precedent-setter for the entire city; as fine folks in other neighborhoods launch news websites based on this model, several have opened discussions with their respective precincts, which wouldn’t be possible without the trail blazed by the foresightedness and openness of the Southwest Precinct — and the receptiveness of downtown leadership all the way up to Chief Gil Kerlikowske. So anyway, when we go to City Hall that night, whatever plaque or certificate or handshake we get is really yours too; thanks for so often taking the time to let us – and thereby everyone else in West Seattle – know what’s going on, and please continue to e-mail, call, “tweet,” etc., with information/photos/tips/concerns any time, 24/7.
Night Out tomorrow: More than crimefighting and celebrating
By this time tomorrow night, dozens of neighborhoods all around West Seattle will be finishing up, or cleaning up after, their Night Out block parties – more than 200 registered for the right to block off their (non-arterial) streets, 
according to what we heard from Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow a few days ago. (And thanks to everyone who e-mailed us when we asked to hear from block-party-throwers who wouldn’t mind WSB showing up for a photo or two – we hope to see many, hopefully all, of you tomorrow night!) But one other thing worth noting – while the main purpose of Night Out is to get people together to celebrate neighborhood solidarity and raise awareness about safety and crimefighting, more than half a dozen areas of West Seattle are also participating in a test of radio communications in case of a disaster or other major emergency – they’ll be doing a relay of sorts using simple walkie-talkie-type “family radios,” to see how well information could be relayed neighborhood to neighborhood across the peninsula if necessary. This is a spinoff from some of the emergency-preparedness events we told you about a few months back; we’ll let you know how the test goes – and we’ll be posting in-progress updates on Night Out tomorrow as we travel around West Seattle! (Just found out it’s the nationwide event’s 25th anniversary.)
Reader report: Apparent vandalism “bash” in Westwood
We usually hear from Dina Johnson on Highland Park Action Committee issues but today she e-mailed WSB with a report of something entirely unrelated – a bizarre scene of apparent vandalism in Westwood. She writes:
I found this seemingly undisturbed scene at 10 this morning, across the street from Staples in Westwood Village. I hate to think this is someone’s idea of fun on a Saturday night, just a few blocks from my home.
It’s the north parking lot of 8826 25th Ave SW – the driver’s license office – next to a 8826, a 4-story multifamily building under construction.
If you can’t quite place the location, that’s a wide shot showing the building, and some of the smashed items below. Dina continues:
Looks like some idiots broke into the structure and hurled stuff off the upper floors to smash below: 2 microwave ovens, at least 6 computer monitors, and glass bottles. The parking lot is covered with a mess of broken glass and metal debris.
We’ll be watching for the report on this one. Meantime, Dina posted several more photos – including the booze and smokes packaging she found in the debris – on this webpage.
West Seattle Crime Watch reader report: Park car break-in
Out of the WSB inbox, from Michale:
Just thought your readers should know that my car was broke into at the Westcrest dog park yesterday around 5 PM. My passenger side window was smashed out and the door frame bent. This was in the North parking lot. A couple of days ago, there was glass from another car window that had been smashed out. I should have taken the hint and parked somewhere else! I just want to warn other readers that this is happening at the dog park lately and be advised to make sure there are no valuables in the car. This seems to be a smash and grab. The thief did not take the time to go through my car, but simply reached through and grabbed a saddle bag – luckily for me it was empty.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Ferry-line cutting triggers gun scare
Thanks to Anne at Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor) and to Darren, who both e-mailed to ask about police action in Fauntleroy last night. 
Turns out it was an arrest at the ferry terminal; thanks to Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen for a quick response with info: The call first came in around 9 pm as “a man with a gun menacing people in the ferry line. Police rushed to the terminal (5 or so cars, by both accounts) and found out it was actually a woman, who had a .380 in her car. According to police, it started “when (she) cut into the ferry lane and was kicked out of place by employees. The suspect then pointed her loaded pistol at a nearby car containing 2 adults and 2 small children. The victims feared for their lives and ducked. Nobody was injured.” Officers took the woman to the King County Jail, where she was booked for investigation of assault. (The jail register shows one person booked late last night for that potential charge, a 47-year-old from Vashon.)
“Night Out” next Tuesday: Be part of West Seattle history!
Talked with Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow at tonight’s meeting for the neighborhood that almost had a Re-entry Housing Pilot Project house moving in (original WSB story here; last night’s followup here). We asked him how “Night Out” preparations were going; he said it looks like registrations have eclipsed the record set last year, around 200 so far. You’ve still got a full day to sign up your block party for next Tuesday night (which gets you the right to close off the street); here’s how to do it. And as we mentioned earlier today, if you wouldn’t mind WSB stopping by for a quick pic, please send us your block party’s address/time frame — we want to make sure our coverage next Tuesday night shows the world that West Seattle neighbors are serious about watching out for each other and staying safe. (Meantime, more on the aforementioned meeting, in a bit.)
Crime Watch reader report: In the yard? Lock the door
This just out of the WSB inbox, from Desiree:
I had a terrible thing happen to me yesterday and I want to share it with others so the same thing does not happen to them. I live in West Seattle at Southern St and 35th Ave SW. While I was mowing my lawn yesterday (Wednesday) a thief entered my home through the basement utility room. He stole my purse, jug of change ($80) and my mother’s engagement ring (not replaceable). After I finished mowing the front lawn I walked the lawn mower down the side of the home and into my driveway where there was a beat-up black BMX bike on the sidewalk at the end of my driveway. I though, gosh that’s a big bike for the kids to be riding and thought nothing more about it. After I put the lawn mower away and turned around I noticed the bike was gone. This was maybe a minute from when I had just walked by the bike.
When I realized my purse was missing I headed straight to the bank where I was told by the bank representative that already the thief had tested my debit card at the ARCO station. When the police arrived and learned of my situation they shared with me that this has been happening in the area from the south to the Admiral District. Mostly these “Opportunists” are looking for elderly people working in their yards, which is a good opportunity to enter the home, according to the police officer. A running lawn mower is an excellent indication for a thief to know of ones whereabouts. I really never thought I’d have to lock my door while I’m doing choirs around the home.
I spoke to the neighbors and the little boy saw a man arrive on his black bicycle with black clothing and dark skin. The boy saw him on my deck. Which was a very scary thing since you can only get on the deck from the upstairs kitchen door. The boy saw the man crawl over the deck…the boy thought it was my husband. With the boy witnessing the man’s actions, it helped me put together what really happened and how the thief entered and exited my home.
I think this information is very important so please post it as a reminder for neighbors to be alert to their surrounding and be safety-conscious.
A related reminder: The neighborhood crime-fighting-awareness event Night Out is next Tuesday, and tomorrow is your last day to register your block, which gets you official permission to close it to traffic that evening, so you can have a block party. Here’s how to register. (And if you’re having a Night Out event, and wouldn’t mind us dropping by to get a picture and say hi, please let us know where and when – this is the type of community event we love to celebrate in WSB coverage.)
Crime Watch reader report: Someone scooted off with scooter
This is out of the WSB inbox, from a couple in the Seaview area, who attached the photo you see above:
On July 29, our beautiful beloved new Stella scooter was stolen sometime after 12:45 AM from the front of our home in West Seattle … around the 46th and Raymond/Juneau cross streets. If you have any information please contact the police dept at 206-733-9800 or 911 case# 08-279064 it would mean the world to us. We have attached a picture of what our bike looks like and the temporary license plate is 212099. …
Also, with the rise in Scooter ownership due to increasing gas prices, we felt it would be great to let others know the potential for theft. We only had her for a short while and are crushed about it.
From the precinct: Community Police Team’s temporary change
It’s been a challenging summer for the Southwest Precinct, dealing with some officer injuries (like this one) that have affected staffing, and forced some difficult choices. The precinct leader we mention the most, Lt. Steve Paulsen — who’s in charge of precinct operations, which means logistics, scheduling, and other planning/execution to keep West Seattle (and South Park) safe — has just written with a message for you about one resulting short-term change:
For the next month to month and a half, we are going to pretty much shut down our Community Police Team office. I have made the tough decision to put our Community Police Team back into patrol to get us through the rest of the summer. Given this temporary situation, I believe it is more important that our citizens have the officers in the field. The CPT officers will be working the areas they normally serve so they can keep current with issues to their assigned neighborhoods. What they won’t be able to do is answer/monitor their office telephone calls from citizens in the Precinct.
The good part is that we will be in the field, enhancing our current ability to provide a responsive service. If our citizens have non-emergency neighborhood issues that requires our attention — please feel free to contact Crime Prevention Specialist Benjamin Kinlow at 206-684-7724. Any other concerns, please contact the Southwest Precinct at 206-733-9800.
Again, thank you for your patience and support … We truly enjoy our partnership with our West Seattle community.
If you’re wondering “what’s the Community Police Team?” — these are officers assigned to certain sectors of the precinct’s area with primarily proactive, rather than reactive, duties — from working with community groups to address their concerns (we see CPT reps at many key meetings), to keeping close watch on potential trouble spots, even repeat visits to make themselves known. You can read about the CPT at this page on the SW Precinct website. Meantime, as Lt. Paulsen mentioned, it’s a “partnership” with you — and the next action you can take in this partnership is participating in Night Out, next Tuesday; it’s not too late to register your block (which gets you the right to close it down for the evening) – here’s the place to start.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Watchdog woes, and more
From reports filed at the Southwest Precinct in the past several days (downloaded last night so we haven’t seen the very newest ones yet): We start with somebody taking on trouble in his neighborhood – and getting trouble in return: In the 5600 block of SW Teig around 9:20 pm Saturday night, a man in his 50s told police he had seen teenagers using drugs and urinating in the street near his home, so he started taking pictures of them and their VW Rabbit with his cell-phone camera. They told him to stop; he didn’t, and he told police one of them “jumped on him” and scratched his face. The report says officers couldn’t see any visible injuries but a witness confirmed the attack; it also says they advised the man to call police next time rather than trying to take matters into his own hands, but he wasn’t very receptive to that advice. More summarized reports ahead, including a bartender attacked while working and an alert business owner helping bust up a possible underground burglary attempt:Read More
West Seattle Crime Watch: Health-care office hit
Busy morning so far. In addition to the Hancock/Schuck’s demolition and a notable tree takedown (report to come), we were going through a sheaf of police reports downloaded last night at the precinct – when something too new to have been in that stack arrived in the WSB inbox from Dr. Elise Mullen:
(At) Seattle Wellness Programs, 5617 California Ave SW: We had someone come through the office, at approximately 8:20 pm (last night), while the massage therapist, Leah Bowman, was working and stole her purse which was in a back room. A police report has been filed Please let police know if anyone saw someone at that time or recovers the purse. 206-388-2929
West Seattle Crime Watch: P-Patch pilfering
Lots of gardening-related news today already (Community Harvest update here; West Seattle Garden Tour report here), but here’s one we wish we didn’t have to report. Maybe it’s a simple case of misunderstanding, rather than outright deliberate theft, but whatever it is, Lincoln Park P-Patch coordinator Michelle wants it to stop – here’s what she e-mailed us:
I was wondering if you would post a note on your blog about the rise in the number of theft incidents from the Lincoln Park P-Patch over the past couple of months. We have had entire vegetable plants stolen from the beds as well as produce prematurely harvested.
With the rising cost of food and fuel, we recognize that everyone is feeling the pinch at the stores lately. That, and the concern over the safety of mass produced food, is why many of us find growing our own vegetables and herbs to be our best option. Quite a bit of sweat and effort goes into growing the gardens, so to have someone come along and pluck until their heart’s content is very discouraging. We want to let the community know that they are more than welcome to wander and admire the variety of flowers and vegetables there, but the produce and plants are not up for grabs. If anyone is interested in gardening a plot of their own, they can find more information at: www.ci.seattle.wa.us/neighborhoods/ppatch/gardening.htm.
We’ve also reported here in recent months about various group gardening efforts that are using volunteer help and sharing the harvest with those who helped do the work (like Longfellow Creek Garden in the Delridge area), so watch for more word of chances to get involved with gardens like those. TUESDAY MORNING P.S.: After this WSB item appeared Sunday night, two citywide media outlets contacted us Monday asking about the story; here’s the KOMO version.
Crime Watch: WSHS vandalism; North Admiral break-in attempt
FIRST: The 911 log showed an “automatic fire alarm” call at West Seattle High School listed as open for several hours early this morning, which is unusual, so we called Seattle Fire Department to check. Public-information officer Sue Stangl says someone “threw a small chunk of concrete through a window” and followed it up by throwing a lit string of 100 or so firecrackers through the broken window — the smoke set off the fire alarm. The only notable damage was to the window, but the call stayed “open” on the log because of the ongoing investigation.
SECOND: A reader report about suspected “casing” and a subsequent burglary attempt that neighbors think might be linked:
Belvidere neighborhood last night near Olga and Belvidere . On Wednesday, police were called when two African-Americans, one heavyset boy, one girl, both around 16-18 yrs old, all dressed in white, were going door to door without ID. Last night there was an attempted break-in in the same area at a home where the owners had placed their garbage out early due to being out of town. Police again were notified but were directed to the wrong address. Suspect could only be identified as 6’1-6’2 and African-American with normal-fitting dark hoodie. White Cadillac with dark tinted windows seen in the neighborhood around the same time as both events.
Crime Watch reader report: Cars vandalized
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Deanna:
I live in the townhouses right next to the old Fairmount Elementary School (next to the baseball fields) and my car was vandalized sometime early Saturday morning (between 12 am and 8 am). These little f***ers for fun just ripped off my passenger side mirror and threw it into the street to get smashed. Good times! Also, they bent my neighbor’s antenna on her car so that it will no longer go up and down as her car starts.
Just thought you might want to know. Not that the police did anything other than take the report over the phone. But I hear kids out here all the time behind the abandoned school, and I think it’s time we start calling this stuff in and make them do something.
As we mentioned in e-mail back to Deanna, filing reports – no matter how small the vandalism, or theft, or other “property crime” seems to be – is really important, because tracking trends helps police determine how to deploy patrol resources, and which areas they need to keep a closer eye on. The nonemergency number is 206-625-5011.
Follow-up: Westwood WaMu drive-thru bank-robber description
Just checked with Seattle FBI spokesperson Robbie Burroughs to see if there are any photos of the Westwood Village WaMu drive-thru robber from yesterday — no pix, but the description of the robber (and vehicle) has been refined; here’s the latest:
What we know now is that an older white female dressed in black clothing, dark sunglasses, a fake beard and possibly a wig, robbed the Washington Mutual Bank drive-thru window just before 1pm. She passed a note to the teller saying there was a bomb planted in the bank that would go off in 90 seconds if she was not given money. The teller complied and the robber drove off. Her vehicle was described as a Jeep type SUV, burgundy in color. The exact plate # is not known but a witness saw a 4×4 inch sticker of a Boston Terrier on a window on the driver’s side of the vehicle toward the back of the car. No photos of the robber were obtained. She is still at large.
Update: “Bearded” woman robs West Seattle bank – at drive-thru
(newest info at the bottom of the post)
(photos added 1:40 pm)
No further details yet, we are en route to check it out in person, but scanner traffic indicates another West Seattle bank robbery – this one time at WaMu in Westwood Village. (Thanks to CDN, who was listening to the scanner at a moment when we weren’t.) Scanner just bulletined they are looking for a Jeep Grand Cherokee, masked woman who said she had explosives on her body, plate similar to 197XOF, decal of a boxer dog on the window. Happened within the past 10 minutes or so. Call 911 if you see anything resembling the vehicle mentioned above. 1:08 PM UPDATE: We’re at the bank. Police confirm a robbery – at the drive-thru.
The bank has signs up saying “temporarily closed.” At least two police units on scene.
1:11 PM UPDATE: Latest scanner bulletin also mentions the robber claimed there were explosives in her vehicle. 1:22 PM UPDATE: We talked to a bank employee who said it happened pretty much right at 1 pm and only involved the robber and the drive-thru teller – everybody’s OK and most others in the bank didn’t even know what was going on until afterward – more police have arrived at the bank as have FBI agents. Investigators are going around that part of Westwood Village looking for witnesses.
3 PM UPDATE: The outdoor ATM’s are doing a lively business while the bank lobby remains closed. Police have cleared the scene. Here’s some video from earlier this afternoon. The gent in the checked shirt talking to the police is from the FBI.
5:21 PM UPDATE: Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct just updated us: No arrest yet. The official description is “white female with a fake bearded … driving a large burgundy SUV.”
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