Though the Admiral area saw snow overnight, car prowlers didn’t seem to care. We have two reader reports from that area:

MULTIPLE CARS PROWLED: A texter reports, “There was a string of car prowls on 41st Ave SW, just south of the high school early this am. Several locks were hollowed out.”

SUNGLASSES STOLEN: From Rachael – “My husband;s car was rifled through last night. We live on Ferry Avenue a few doors down from the fire station in North Admiral. He apparently left it unlocked and the only thing they stole was his prescription sunglasses.”

Three reports in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

STOLEN SUBARU: Texted report – “Unfortunately our black 2016 Subaru Forester was stolen last night from our driveway in North Admiral. OH license plate GWA1001 … sizable dent in the driver’s-side door.” Call 911 if you see it.

ANOTHER AUDI THEFT ATTEMPT: This happened last month, but Adrian just heard about the rash of crimes targeting Audis and so shares this report of what happened near 35th/Cambridge:

Someone attempted to steal my 2003 Audi A4 from in front of my house in the early morning of December 19th. They nearly totaled the car by destroying the door lock and ignition cylinder. The car is still at the dealership today getting fixed. They also stole a green Northface rain jacket and a Pelican brand case from the car.

ILLEGAL DUMPING AT CHURCH: From the Rev. Kate Wesch at St.John the Baptist Episcopal Church:

Local church and neighbors are concerned at the recent rise in incidents of illegal dumping of large items such as furniture in the area surrounding West Seattle High School and St John the Baptist Episcopal Church. In each situation, the church, which operates entirely upon the donations of parishioners, incurs the costs in time and money, to dispose of these items. It has become both a frustration and a burden for the small staff and volunteers. Church members urge neighbors to keep an eye out and if you see something, say something.

The items in the photo, she says, are a couch and chair. She adds, “And we still have a large tv stand left three weeks ago while we were having a Sunday morning service!”

Two incidents in West Seattle Crime Watch:

HOME-INVASION ROBBERY: A 60-year-old man was taken to the hospital after a home-invasion robbery around 2:45 am in the 6500 block of 24th SW. The full report narrative is not yet available but police tell us two armed men were reported to have broken into the house and assaulted two residents, including the one who had to go to the hospital. No arrests yet, nor is description information available, but robbery detectives are investigating.

CHILDREN APPROACHED: This happened Tuesday, according to the latest weekly newsletter to families from Arbor Heights Elementary principal Christy Collins, forwarded to us by a parent (thank you!):

I want to take this opportunity to let you know we are working with the Seattle Police Department to ensure our students are taught about personal safety and highlight an incident that occurred Tuesday after school where three of our students responded successfully to a stranger-situation.

Around 2:40 p.m., three of our students reported to their parents that a male and female in their early 20s, driving an older, green Toyota sedan, tried to engage them in conversation as they walked home from school. They offered the students a ride home. The students responded appropriately and remained safe. Police were notified by the student’s parents, and as of today, the Seattle Police Department is continuing to gather additional information and working closely with the District’s Safety and Security Department. Although in this incident the offer was for a ride, there was not a physical attempt to get the students in the car. We wanted to make sure parents are alerted.

The newsletter includes this link to SPD advice for children’s safety.

(WSB photo, New Year’s Day)

The man accused of attacking another man who tried to stop him from assaulting a woman in The Juncton is now charged. We first reported on the incident New Year’s Day. 39-year-old James M.Johns is charged with second-degree assault, his bail upped to $150,000. Charging documents say Johns has 10 felony convictions in 20 years, including burglary and possession of a stolen car, and 10 misdemeanors, including two DUIs. The original call on New Year’s Day reported a man beating a woman who was on the ground at California/Edmunds; they had left before police arrived but witnesses pointed their car and police stopped it. Meantime, they found the victim, who told police he had been walking from the grocery store with his wife and two children when he saw Johns beating the woman. As a third man, who apparently knew Johns, tried to break it up, the victim told Johns to leave the woman alone – and then, court documents say, Johns punched him in the face, hard enough to break a bone. As for the woman who had been attacked, police say she denied having been assaulted, and that as they took Johns away, he gave that woman his PIN number so she could get money to bail him out. The jail register shows he got out on bond after one day when his bail was set at $10,000, but when the charge was filed Monday, it was raised to $150,000 this past Monday, and the register shows he’s been back in custody since then. His arraignment is set for January 16th.

Two Three incidents in West Seattle Crime Watch:

EARLY-MORNING SEARCH: Several people have asked about an early-morning search – around 2:40 am – in the Fairmount Park area, including a K-9 team. SPD tells us it was related to a domestic-violence case (which is why no related incident # shows on the 911 map/tweet log), and that officers did not find the person they were looking for.

CAR PROWL: Thanks to Anna for the reader report:

I wanted to share my car prowl report on 47th Ave SW and Murray Ave SW. At around 2AM, someone parked across from our driveway, opened our car doors and took miscellaneous loose belongings. I filed an online report with SPD (T2000390 tracking number). Just wanted to let others in the neighborhood know so that they can take preventive measures.

GATEWOOD FOLLOWUP (added 12:05 pm): Moments after we published the above two items, SPD Blotter posted a followup on the Gatewood incident we covered yesterday afternoon, so we’re adding it:

Officers arrested a 23-year-old man and recovered a handgun and small amounts of narcotics Tuesday after they found a man slumped over in a running vehicle in a West Seattle alleyway.

Shortly after 2:30 PM, police responded to a report of a man slumped over in running white, orange, and black Honda Civic, which was blaring loud music, in the 6900 block of 37th Avenue Southwest.

When officers arrived, they peered through the car’s tinted windows and saw a man slumped over in the driver’s seat of the running vehicle, and noticed a pistol protruding from in between the car’s front passenger seat and console.

Officers unsuccessfully attempted to rouse the driver, and found the car’s doors were locked, so they broke out the vehicle’s passenger-side window. The driver eventually woke up and was ordered to exit his car. As he did so, a baggie of narcotics fell from his lap onto the ground.

Officers then found small amounts of heroin, meth, Xanax, marijuana and pistol and two loaded magazines inside the vehicle. A loaded magazine was recovered from the front passenger seat. Another loaded magazine was recovered from inside the glove box. The vehicle was secured and left at the scene.

Officers arrested the 23-year-old man and booked him into the King County Jail for narcotics possession and DUI.

Reader report/tip for Crime Watch? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302 voice/text – thank you!

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

ANOTHER AUDI THEFT: Audis seem to be a favorite target of local car thieves lately. From Derek:

Our car was stolen late evening the 2nd or early morning the 3rd, before 4:00 am.

1985 Audi 4000S quattro. Blue with gray/black interior. Dents and dings on every panel. Washington plate AFV7909. Taken from the 6500 block of 18th Ave SW. Police incident number 2020-002643.

APARTMENT-GARAGE CAR PROWLS: An anonymous reader sent word that the “Junction 47 apartments on the corner of Alaska and California has had three mass car break-ins in the secure garage in the last two months, two of which involved vandalism of and theft from the cars (smashed windows and stolen items).” The most recent, police confirm, was overnight New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day, with three vehicles prowled. Incident # 2020-000414.

ALKI CAR PROWL: The image and report are from Allen, who says this happened in the 3600 block of 61st SW:

12/31/2019 @ 8:16 am. Man in 20s. Dark jacket, hoody underneath. small backpack and white tennis shoes with reflectors above heel area and zig-zag black manufacture markings on side of shoes. Entered unlocked car in carport stole tire chains and misc. items after getting in thru backseat to trunk. Left carrying dark bag containing chains south on 61st Ave. SW. @ 8:19 am. Police report: T19014832 [temporary tracking #] if you can help identify thief.

Charlotte emailed to report having seen someone vandalizing vehicles parked on 14th SW north of SW Roxbury – hitting them last night around 5:30 pm with some kind of object. She called police but the vandal ran off. She wrote, “Thought this would be helpful Information for people on that street as I saw their cars had dents where I saw the person hit them.” She went through the area again this morning and says some of those dents are clearly visible in doors.

4:03 PM: Multiple texts about a police response in The Junction this past half-hour, near California/Erskine. It was dispatched as an assault, a man beating a woman. We don’t know whether they were acquainted or strangers but the victim is being taken to the hospital and one suspect is in custody.

6:01 PM: SFD spokesperson Kristin Tinsley tells WSB that the victim they treated was actually “an approximately 38-year-old male who stepped in to try to stop an assault. He was stable and had plans to go to hospital in personal vehicle.”

ADDED MONDAY EVENING: The 39-year-old man arrested Wednesday remains in jail; bail was set today at $10,000

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports:

STOLEN GREEN JEEP CHEROKEE: From Mell:

My 1992 green Jeep Cherokee was stolen from my house at 11 am today. 6900 block of 23rd Ave SW. License plate #971ZOQ.

If you see it, call 911.

(ADDED 7:17 PM) ANOTHER VEHICLE THEFT: From K:

2001 Chevy Astro van, white, license plate BOS1964 stolen from 4500 block of 45th Ave SW on Saturday night the 28th or Sunday morning. A couple of distinctive features, cracked windshield and dented front bumper. If found, please call 206-276-8233, and the police stress that if you see someone driving it, don’t confront the driver, just call 911.

MORE LOCK-CUTTING: From David:

We are having a small addition put on our house (in the 4100 block of) 48th Ave SW between Genesee and Dakota to which our contractor has a small lockable trailer parked in front of our house. Last night someone cut one of the two locks but must have been thwarted by a car or a person, very upsetting to see this morning. If anyone has seen any suspicious activity or persons in the Genesee Hill area, it needs to be reported.

Notably, that’s only a few blocks from this lockbox-cutting burglary attempt last week.

SCAM CALLS: Mike emailed to say, “Just thought I would mention that the scammers pretending to be from City Light are back. It deals with power being shut off if bill isn’t paid in 30 minutes. A reminder: Do not call the phone number they give, as it is not City Light’s number. And here I sit an hour later with all my lights on :)”

In fact, City Light tweeted something along those lines this morning:

The video and report are from Ken:

We live in the 4000 block of 45th Ave SW. We have been having our kitchen renovated and the contractor had a lockbox on our back door with a key to our house inside. At 5:45 am an unidentified male cut the lockbox off the door with bolt cutters and left.

10 minutes later he returned, along with an unidentified female, and entered our home using the key. He was in the house less approx 30 seconds, running out when he heard us awake and coming downstairs. Everything was captured by our doorbell camera (which he put his hand over when he was using the key but did not when he was cutting off the lock box!). SPD did respond timely but the two burglars were gone.

The SPD incident # is 19-477540.

Two car-prowl reports tonight in West Seattle Crime Watch, starting with this one from Erin in Upper Fauntleroy:

My car was ‘broken in to’ sometime between the evening of Friday, December 20 and the evening of Wednesday, December 25. They must have a fancy way of getting in to keyless cars because the driver door and trunk were in the closed position but not latched and there was no broken window or anything. Same thing happened to my parents a couple of weeks ago right across the street from me. They stole my prescription sunglasses and prescription regular glasses. Unfortunately, they also stole a teaching curriculum called Crucial Conversations out of my trunk that I forgot was in there. It’s a gray bag with red accents and either says VitalSmarts or Crucial Conversations on the bag… If anyone finds this bag around West Seattle, I would love to get the curriculum back!

And from Sarah:

Car break-in at around 5:30 tonight in the upper lot at Lincoln Park: it was the main parking lot, north end of park … nothing of value in the car. We would love to know if anyone saw it happen, though!

The report on that one has a preliminary tracking number of T19014495.

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

MAIL TRUCK THIEVES ON VIDEO: Thanks to Deb for the tip on this – she first reported:

… Our awesome postal carrier out of Westwood Village said his colleague’s mail truck was stolen from around Seaview Methodist Church today and dumped blocks away with undelivered and collected mail taken out of the truck. Police and the Post Office were alerted. The people who dumped the mail truck were observed by a neighbor in the 6500 block of 49th Avenue SW who said they got into a silver 2 door Audi, License ADT—-

We were trying to get the report from police today when the US Postal Inspection Service tweeted this:

SPEAKING OF AUDIS: From a texter in the Belvidere area:

Let me know if you see our silver S4 Audi wagon around. It was stolen at 6:30 am in front of our house. They left another West Seattle stolen blue Audi. Both have They tried to returned in a third Audi to get the blue one.

We don’t have the plate #’s but we do have an incident # – 19-474605.

STABBING FOLLOWUP: We were finally able today to obtain the report from Sunday night’s stabbing incident in which two teenagers turned up in the Admiral Safeway parking lot with knife wounds that were reported to have happened elsewhere.

(Sunday night photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)

The person with minor wounds to his hand told police he was cut trying to grab the knife from the attacker who had stabbed his brother. Both said it was an unprovoked attack by someone who ran up to them and a group of friends shortly after they left Hiawatha Park. The only description the most seriously injured victim could offer was “an unknown race male, 6 ft tall, medium build, last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants.” The victims weren’t sure exactly what street they were on when attacked, but the report mentions that, as we reported Sunday night, a passerby saw it happening at 46th/Stevens.

In West Seattle Crime Watch:

STOLEN TOYOTA TRUCK: Victoria‘s Tacoma was stolen from the 4500 block of Glenn Way:

It was taken some time between 11 pm and 6:30 am. It is a blue 2015 Toyota Tacoma, it’s lifted and has a custom grill, light bar on top and in the custom bumper. The plate number is C45948P; the report number is 19-473574.

If you see it, call 911.

CAR BREAK-IN/THEFT ATTEMPT: Via text – “Was going to go to work, my front driver-side car door was left open. They pulled out my Ignition, tried to start the car and couldn’t. It has a safety lockup, so they just grabbed everything they could in the car.” This happened near California/Raymond.

STORE INTRUDER: CAPERS in The Junction reported an intruder in their store around noontime Sunday who they believe matched the description of the intruder reported at Holy Rosary. He was found in their office area. They do not believe anything was taken

Reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

CHURCH PROWLER: From Holy Rosary pastor Fr. Matthew Oakland:

Today after our last Mass at Holy Rosary, while decorating the church for Christmas, an unknown man was in the church standing behind columns, shifting his position so as to be less visible as the decorating crew were moving about. He was later found by one of the staff in the sacristy going through all of the cabinets, after making an unsuccessful walkthrough earlier as there were still people there. When confronted, he asked if an unknown person was there, was upset at being suspected of theft when asked what exactly he was looking for, and then made a hasty exit toward the Junction.

During this season of such great generosity, this is a reminder especially to our neighboring houses of worship of the unfortunate need to always be mindful and on alert.

Description: About 5’10”, slim to medium build, about 50 years old, African American, wearing a gray close fitting hat and gray jacket with dark pants.

PACKAGE THIEF: Mary says the area around 30th/Holden had multiple reports of a package thief/prowler today.

See a closer-up framegrab here

PROWLER: No visual but we also received a text of a prowler active in Fauntleroy, near 45th/Austin.

This happened to Laura overnight:

I wanted to pass along Incident #19-471877. My car was parked on Harbor Ave SW [2400 block]. Someone broke into to my 15-year-old car. They attempted to steal it as well, but were unsuccessful. They stole emergency cash, emergency car kit, emergency survival kit, and a bag or two full of donations.

Please remind folks to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity. My car doors were locked and I did not have anything out in view. Bad people suck.

“If he is out of custody, he is committing violent crimes. If he is supervised, he is committing violent crimes.” That’s how prosecutors describe 19-year-old John Leota, a West Seattle resident, in the robbery charge just filed against him. Leota is one of the additional potential suspects under investigation in the recent robbery “spree.” He was jailed a week ago in connection with warrants on other pending cases, then charged today with one of the holdups in that “spree,” at a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop downtown in September. Others who allegedly participated in the holdup include the 17-year-old recently arrested by SWAT officers at his High Point home and charged in the Lucky 5 robbery in West Seattle. Other cases pending against Leota include a street robbery in North Seattle, domestic violence, and shoplifting thousands of dollars in merchandise from grocery and music stores. His bail was set today at $300,000 and he remains in the King County Jail.