Crime Watch: Plant thief; cars prowled; 2-time break-in victim

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three Crime Watch notes to pass along – click ahead:

From Nicole:

Hi, just thought I would share some info. I had all of my plants stolen from my porch sometime during the night, including my first Mother’s Day gift (a rare plant). I live between Juneau and Findlay on California Ave SW [map].

From Terry:

We live in the Arbor Heights neighborhood between 102nd and 104th Ave SW just off Marine View Drive [map]. The driver’s side doors for both vehicles were open when we got up this morning and both vehicles were rifled through between the hours of 11pm on Saturday night and 5am Sunday morning. We had nothing of importance in the vehicles for them to take, so everything was just left strewn about. Probably looking for big ticket items like laptops, Ipods, GPS’s, etc. First time something like this has happened since we moved in over 5 years ago.

And from Elliott:

I just want to let you know about a recent rash of break-ins that have been happening in White Center. …

One of my best friends, who lives in WC, was broken into on Monday, May 17 between 8 am and 6 pm. This is the second time within 5 months, the first happened two days before Christmas. The first time they broke a window and opened a door, they stole all of the wrapped presents under the tree along with an xbox, ipod, laptop, diamond earrings, and designer handbags. This most recent occurrence the break-in happened in the same fashion…window broken to open a door. This time, however, they drove their car into their back yard and parked it behind a fence to keep it out of sight from the road. This time they stole all of the things that were replaced from the first burglary including a new laptop, a new xbox, a new ipod, new diamond earrings, financial documents, etc. My friend has been dealing with King County Sheriffs and they are convinced that their house was broken into by the same person/people and that they are “scoping out” the house to learn the tendencies of the owners. No fingerprints were found on either occasion.

They live on the corner of SW 100th Street and 11th Ave SW [map].

The White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meets this week – Thursday night, May 27, 6 pm, WC DSHS office.

shane May 23, 2010 (9:14 am)

Three car break-ins on the 4100 block of Roxbury in Arbor heights Friday night between the hours of 11pm and 2am. Nothing of importance was taken. All three cars were left a mess.

localman May 23, 2010 (12:14 pm)

We also had plants stolen or rather the very young buds/flowers of my wifes very large lilac. Every year it produces hundreds of flowers on our back fence and this year we got nada. After inspection we noticed where someone had just pulled all the flowers off prior to thier full bud or flowering process. Has anyone else noticed this type of behavior?
Thanks

Mike D. May 23, 2010 (12:45 pm)

Some jerk decided to reach over our backyard fence in our alley and cut off a 25′ tall shoot from our Vivax and Bory Timber Bamboo grove. If they would have only asked I would have gladly given them plenty of tall shoots in a few weeks when I carefully and strategically thin the grove.

LeeT May 23, 2010 (12:50 pm)

Well, I’ve experienced the same thing as Nicole and Terry (not posted) in the last several weeks. They, like in Terry’s case, got nothing out of my car, but made a huge mess looking for whatever it was they were after.
With the similarities involved, it wouldn’t surprise me if each of the incidents were committed by the same person or group.

LeeT May 23, 2010 (1:55 pm)

Oh, and though I know this topic has sparked some controversy in the past, I’d recommend keeping an eye out for anything stolen on EBay and Craigslist. That’s what puzzled me the most about having a bunch of planters and flowers stolen from my porch, and subsequently hearing that this is a fairly frequent occurrence these days. What on earth were they going to do with them? Is there some new “planter” fence in town who buys them all up and sells them out of state? (I joke, but…)

If the community has any other ideas about what to do *after* the crime beyond the obvious, I’d love to hear them.

Catherine May 23, 2010 (10:09 pm)

Sorry about your losses and invasions of privacy. That really sucks :(

rlgnea May 29, 2010 (8:33 am)

PROWLER: 4700 BLOCK AND ADMIRAL WAY
CAUGHT CLIMBING UP TRELLIS IN MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. BROKE INTO ANOTHER HOME AND A CAR ON THE END OF THE BLOCK WAS ALSO BROKEN INTO.

former neighbor May 31, 2010 (11:01 am)

That is so odd about the flowers being stolen. When I moved over to 20th & Roxbury 10 years ago I left a bunch of little petunias still in their containers in my flowerbed but had covered them with a little dirt to disguise the containers. I returned with my stuff to move in the next day and someone took all 20 or so plants! I was amused that someone would risk arrest over twenty five cent flowers. However, I have to say the time I lived there in that area for 8 years I never had any issues with any other property crime. The brand new bikes I had stored off my back porch in plain view were never bothered. It wasn’t until just recently in my Normandy Park home that the now junky rusted bikes were stolen from a locked storage area. The motivations of people never cease to amaze…

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