West Seattle Crime Watch: Key-grab car thief; suspected casing

| Crime | West Seattle news

Tonight, two incidents that resulted in police reports – a car theft with a twist, and a suspected casing – read on:

First, an unusual car theft in Puget Ridge on Friday – we got a tip about this and confirmed it with police. Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James says the victim “parked and locked her car on 16th SW near SSCC. She clipped her keys to the outside of her backpack. Suspect apparently saw her do this, approached her from the side, slipped the keys off the hook, got into her car and fled. She pursued on foot for a short distance. Officers did a thorough area check and couldn’t come up with the car.”

And Dan wondered if he was being cased when this happened:

I live on the 5400 block of Beach Drive [map]. At approximately 10 A.M (Friday) two women came to my door and asked if I spoke Russian. In perfect English one of them said they were going around the neighborhood trying to find someone who spoke Russian. They then spoke to me what sounded like Russian. I said no and I know no one who does. They then immediately left and got in a dark cadillac with tinted windows and chrome wheels. I reported this to the police. Most likely they were house casing.

No proof they were at this point. But police stress over and over again, if something seems suspicious, report it – they would rather hear about it, even if you’re not sure a crime has been or will be committed.

Daniel March 14, 2010 (12:01 pm)

I had a similar suspected house casing incident happen in my neighborhood. I live near the South Seattle Community College on 17th Ave SW and a group of 3 young white males knocked on my door asking if “Kelly” lived here. This was during the day when people are normally at work or at school and I suspected that they were casing the houses in the neighborhood to see which houses had no people in them. Sure enough, about 2 weeks later, my neighbor down the street had their house broken into.

We should all beware and even take down license plate #’s of suspicious cars in your neighborhood that drive around and also take note when strange people “knock” on our doors.

Westside March 14, 2010 (1:08 pm)

Apparently I am not getting the newsletter because I too live on 17th near SCCC and this is the first I have heard of any casing or break in. Sad that even in a small circumscribed neighborhood we still can’t organize well enough to spread this kind of info, let alone assemble an effective block watch.

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