West Seattle Crime Watch: Another rack ripoff

February 13, 2009 at 8:12 pm | In Crime, Seaview, West Seattle news | 14 Comments

Out of the inbox, from Greg in Seaview:

Sometime during the night of Feb 12 or daytime Feb 13, a Yakima roof rack was stolen off of my car parked in the 5000 block of 48th Ave SW [map]. The car was damaged by the thieves and this was the third car theft we have had in the past three months.

Less than two weeks ago, we had multiple rack-theft reports in this story and the ensuing comments.

14 Comments

  1. Just asking, but are these these worth something as scrap metal? Metal thefts seem to be fairly common.

    Comment by BobLoblaw — 9:02 pm February 13, 2009 #

  2. I assume, Greg, you’re checking Craigslist in case your rack turns up there. Also, I wonder if there’s a particular kind of rack they’re going after? Yakima or Thule? Have the racks been locked to the car and they’re prying them off? Feels like a more well thought out crime than hood rats would take the time to do.

    Comment by Creighton — 10:18 pm February 13, 2009 #

  3. Well if I would have read the other entries I’d have known the answers to my questions. Sorry to hear about the theft. I’ll keep an eye out for suspicious types (I’m just up the hill).

    Comment by Creighton — 10:28 pm February 13, 2009 #

  4. I lived on 48th in the 5000 block for 7 yrs; never heard of it being called Seaview

    Comment by Diane — 11:17 pm February 13, 2009 #

  5. Well Diane, you’ve lived in Seaview for 7 years. :)

    Comment by zomg — 11:34 pm February 13, 2009 #

  6. Seems like there has been such an uptick in crime around here lately. Thanks for the heads up, I’m going to go take my rack off the car right now & put it in the garage (provided it’s still there). It seems like you would have to basically destroy a Yakima rack to get it off a car, the way the lock mechanism works. . . what jerks.

    Comment by Roger — 9:54 am February 14, 2009 #

  7. There has been an increase in crime activity in this block in the most recent past. A couple of weeks ago, one neighbor had all four wheels heisted while they slept. Encourage all to at least leave their porch lights lit during the night.

    Comment by Lonnie — 10:40 am February 14, 2009 #

  8. Here Here Lonnie -

    I’ve too have been noticing lately that dozens of houses all over WS have no porch lights on. It’s easy to forget to replace burned out bulbs. Saving energy by not turning on the lights at night is kind of understandable, but I think that given all these crimes, it isn’t very prudent.

    I recently picked up a couple of exterior fluorescent 60w bulbs for my porch at the True Value for about $6. There are also 40w bulbs. It has a bug-coating on it and should last approximately six months, according to the package.

    Just an easy idea for folks to consider.

    Comment by d — 11:26 am February 14, 2009 #

  9. when I lived on that street, 2000 – 2007; there was very little crime, except fireworks
    ~
    in fact one day I came home to discover my back door wide open, only because I had opened it day before for fresh air and forgot to close; after a moment of panic, house search, realized nothing missing, and realized I lived in VERY safe neighborhood, surrounded by ever watchful retired folks
    ~
    I had a porch light on 24/7, one of those low energy that last 7 yrs; it may still be on; I moved to apt 2 yrs ago
    ~
    re Seaview; pretty funny; there was sure no view there; I now live in Belvidere, on hill, with panoramic view of sea; really bay and Seattle skyline
    ~
    re car rack; my car came with a rack when I purchased in 1997; never used; they could have mine if it could be removed without leaving holes/damage to roof

    Comment by Diane — 11:51 am February 14, 2009 #

  10. Crime will continue to rise as this recession deepens; unfortunately, many people in our area are affected by this. The best thing to do is take all possible precautions, and be a little paranoid. I reported gun shots hoping they were fireworks the night the man was recently killed. It is hard to believe at times but this is our current state of things and community involvement is going to be important.

    Comment by Brian — 1:17 pm February 14, 2009 #

  11. oops – my bad: the bulbs are good for six YEARS, not months. Way better value. :]

    Comment by d — 5:49 pm February 14, 2009 #

  12. We had our rack stolen too. Admiral district 46th Ave. Thule brand. There was damage to the car where the racks use to be. Very annoying and extremely disappointing for this to happen. Seems like there’s a pickup in petty theft around here….

    Comment by John — 4:45 pm March 1, 2009 #

  13. We had our Yakima rack stolen off our Mazda Protege in the Alki area in January. Our rack was the kind where you buy towers that mount on to the rain gutters fitted into the door of the vehicle.

    they took some kind of pry bar and dislodged the towers and lifted the entire rack system off of the vehicle and made off with it. We had two Yakima Steelhead bicycle runner type mounts, a fairing, and two bars with towers. All with locks. I figure they take a drill to the locks back in their garage and list them on Craigslist.

    Unfortunately Craigslist is so full of rack system parts there is no hope of tracking this back.

    We didn’t bother to report this to police, but now I think I probably should. Is it too late to report something like this to police?

    Comment by sa — 10:13 pm March 9, 2009 #

  14. No, not too late. Every time I go through police reports, I see reports that were filed weeks or months later. If it doesn’t help you get your rack back, it at least will help them continue to track the incidence of these crimes, and the crime trends in your neighborhood, which helps determine how police allocate staffing – TR

    Comment by WSB — 10:14 pm March 9, 2009 #

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