Besides the missing 14-year-old being found safe and sound (see below), this is the other big news we found out about while at the Southwest Precinct this afternoon: Three suspects are under arrest for investigation of charges including burglary after a wild scene that began with a break-in in the 4500 block of SW Austin (map) – not too far from the general Gatewood/Upper Fauntleroy area that’s been the scene of quite a few daytime burglaries in the past week-plus. Even before seeing the report, we heard about this when 2 of the burglary victims came to the precinct while we were there, to pick up some of the recovered loot. Stand by – we’ll add full details here as soon as we write them up. 6:07 PM UPDATE: That update’s going to take a bit longer than we hoped because we just got even more info from police – bottom line is that there have been three general “patterns” of burglaries in West Seattle lately and police believe they’ve made significant progress in two of them, with some key leads in the third. ADDED 6:50 PM: OK, here are full details and the “big picture”:
First, the backstory – as you know if you follow our West Seattle Crime Watch reports, we’ve been besieged with burglaries more than usual lately. One area that we know was fairly quiet until a burst of break-ins within the past week-plus is Upper Fauntleroy/Gatewood – sticks in our mind because it’s where we live. That’s where today’s action began, with an alert neighbor – most of this information is from the official report, with some supplementary details from Detective Nick Bauer:
The neighbor in the 4500 block of SW Austin heard a window break and saw someone going into a house where she knew no one was home; witnesses also saw an unfamiliar white SUV. The vehicle and suspects took off before police arrived; they got a description out over the police radio, while two officers checked the burglarized residence, where the report says they saw:
… the glass window broken out. As we entered the house we observed the garage doors wide open and a flat screen television face down near the house door. In the driveway we found a cell phone and shopping bag filled with IDs, electronic devices and jewelry boxes. Inside the downstairs living area we observed numerous electronic devices with wires pulled out, and throughout the bedrooms drawers pulled out and emptied, and closet doors opened and pilfered through.
While they continued their work, and other officers looked for the white SUV, yet another call came in to 911 from a different neighbor saying “two Asian males” had come to her door earlier in the morning, and when she answered, said they had the wrong house.
Shortly afterward, the police radio crackled with word that the vehicle – a white Lincoln Navigator – might have been spotted at 35th and Avalon. The driver wouldn’t pull over and police followed until the vehicle finally crashed at 13th/Henderson. Three people got out and ran, but didn’t get far. In their car, police found meth, as well as “a burglary tool kit containing misc. screwdrivers, punch, mini mag lite, red pen, and an allen wrench.” They also found a laptop and watch — these are the items the victims came to the Southwest Precinct to recover while we were there this afternoon.
The three suspects are all Asian-American males, 21 years old (he spent 2 weeks in jail last year), 23 years old, and 17 years old (criminal record going back to 12/2004); none live in West Seattle. Too soon to tell for sure, but Detective Bauer says there’s a good chance they might be linked to some of the other burglaries in the Gatewood/Fauntleroy area. All three face charges of burglary, drug possession, and eluding.
Now, the other burglary-related news — First, police are investigating the possibility that some of the Alki/Admiral-area burglaries where the stolen items included loose change might be linked to a teenage boy facing charges for allegedly stealing the tip jar at Puerto Vallarta restaurant in The Junction. This crime was caught on cell-phone camera, according to detectives, and Officer Patrick Chang (whose work cracked the Admiral rock case, as reported here) identified the suspect from that photography.
Second — and listen up, because your help is especially needed with this one — police think they may know who they’re looking for in a separate group of North Admiral burglaries. They got a call about an African-American man who appeared to be casing houses in the 37th/Stevens area; someone called police and they stopped a suspect, who has a burglary record, but had nothing to hold him on. Then police heard from someone else in the area who’d seen a suspicious white van with a blue stripe, Hispanic man inside — and they say that man is a known associate of the alleged house-caser — so they’re looking into whether the two may be working together again. They didn’t get a report about the van till a few days after the sighting, though, so their message is: If you see something/someone suspicious, CALL NOW.
Meantime, we have a separate stack of reports from the precinct that we’ll write up later – wanted to get the burglary-related news out first; hopefully some relief, but don’t let down your guard. You may see something about today’s arrests in citywide media reports, as the lengthy report was being faxed to the Seattle Police Media Relations team just as we were leaving the precinct. (10:12 PM NOTE: In fact, it was the KING-on-KONG lead story at 10 pm.)
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