West Seattle Crime Watch: Burglars interrupted; 2 arrests

Thanks to Joan (via e-mail) and Rob (via Facebook) for asking about a police search late last night, with K-9, in an area ranging (at least) from 35th/Graham to 39th/Holly. Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith tells WSB that it started when someone who lives in the 6700 block of 40th SW (map) came home to find a burglary in progress. The burglars fled; police started searching and, with K-9 helping follow the trail, found and arrested two suspects. (P.S. As noted earlier, the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meets tonight @ the precinct, 7 pm.)

P May 18, 2010 (8:11 am)

Great job SPD!!!

samson May 18, 2010 (9:07 am)

Strong nose to sniff!!! Great job K-9!!!

HolyKow May 18, 2010 (9:57 am)

Nice to see McGruff get their perp.

I love good police work, lemme tell ya.

Silly Goose May 18, 2010 (10:06 am)

This is fantastic news way to go officers!!

burglarbustindad May 18, 2010 (10:21 am)

My burglar is out now.
He served eight months of a one year sentence.
Please provide details on these two, if available.

WSB May 18, 2010 (10:37 am)

Unfortunately it isn’t likely to be readily apparent from the jail register who was arrested for this last night as opposed to having been arrested for some other burglary somewhere else in the county … I do have the SPD incident # so will see if that gets me anywhere prior to availability of the actual paper report (as you know, those aren’t available online). – Tracy

tincanrocket May 18, 2010 (10:24 am)

Solid effort by the SPD. Tip of the ‘ol hat to you.

Nelson Muntz May 18, 2010 (11:44 am)

Haw-haw! They got caught!

Robert May 18, 2010 (12:12 pm)

Thanks SPD!! Great work. I wonder if these positive actions by the SPD will make the big news. I would hope so but are not counting on it.

Travis_Bickle May 18, 2010 (12:44 pm)

Great! Now lets cut off their right hand..im just say’n…

Barb Jo May 18, 2010 (3:08 pm)

Yikes! I didn’t even notice a thing :-\ What time did this happen?

Great job to all involved in catching the guys! Thanks.

Jimmyz May 18, 2010 (3:31 pm)

Thats great, coming from a Arbor Heights resident where there have been 3 burgularies in the last year on our BLOCK. I just hope they keep the suspects in jail for a long time!!

My house May 18, 2010 (9:42 pm)

This occurred at my house last night. I will gladly post the names of the burglars once I get the police report. They actually caught the guys and then used the dogs to track from our house to the scene of the arrest at the car wash as a confirmation.

Some tips: The guys tried to break in through our garage doors but they were secured. They then went into the backyard and broke in through a basement window that was mostly secured (not solidly because we use the window and they had to work to get in). Be sure to secure your basement windows with either something permenant or something that has a pad lock that is firmly attached.

WSB May 18, 2010 (11:48 pm)

Thanks for commenting, “My house.” Please do not post names until charges are filed, which hopefully will be within a few days (If you e-mail us the names we can check with prosecutors, editor@westseattleblog.com ) – Meantime, Kenneth Shouting is the burglar from burglarbustindad’s case – there is no record of him being booked recently – also out of prison after serving time in a relatively high-profile case, Skyelar Hailey, but he’s not in the system either. So, two other people.

grr May 18, 2010 (11:00 pm)

myhouse…do you have an alarm system? Can you see into your house from the street? Any indication why your place may have been chosen?
–
According to my pal at SPD..most home robberies are a ‘crime of opporunity’. An open window, a clear view from the street into the home.. (big tv glowing on a wall, etc.). Sometimes an alarm system will stop them..sometimes it won’t. Snatch and grab what they can in 60 seconds.

lenguamor May 19, 2010 (1:01 am)

Good work, SPD; too bad the criminal justice system is so screwed up that these guys only serve a year or less. Or in the case of Skyelar, a habitual criminal, less.

Mustafa May 19, 2010 (9:45 am)

My wife and I were coming home from the Morgan Thriftway with our dog when we saw cops pull up. Four police cars and a sniffing dog were around the house. Panicky house owners on porch with their infant daughter said that the only known intruder had jumped from the roof near an open window into the lawn with a loud THUMP, then hobbled off.

WARNING: do not assume that upstairs windows and doors to balconies can be left open when not home. At least, use a block of wood to prevent sliding it open.

OTHER WARNING: How did they know no one was home? By knocking on the door with the ruse that they were soliciting donations for a local charity. Duh! This kind of door-knocking is really starting to piss me off. I see it all the time and it has no place. Who in their right mind is sending 15 year old kids out knocking on doors for hand-outs? Whoever is doing it, please recognize that it gets our dander up, because the same ruse is used to case our homes. If YOU have strangers knocking on your door with a strange story of wanting donations, PLEASE get their information and then send them away. Take a photo of their faces if you can, see if the program they’re peddling exists, and if it does not, relay this information to the police. That itself is fraud, a prosecutable offense.

sofia May 19, 2010 (11:32 am)

Oh, cool. I was babysitting that night, and had to be escorted home. Wondered what was up . . .

My house May 19, 2010 (10:18 pm)

Mustafa… I have to take issue with your comment about “panicky house owners” above. It was the fact that we didn’t panic when all hell broke loose upstairs and the guy jumped off our roof, that allowed us to get a solid description of the guy and subsequently allowed SPD to id the guy at the car wash. You showed up at the same time as the cops were just entering our house to clear it of any other intruders… not exactly our chattiest time of night.

I’m not sure if your warning about leaving windows etc open upstairs was directed at us, but the people in our house broke in through a basement window, not by entering from upstairs. (see my post above)

As for your other warning, it has its points. This is where neighbors need to keep an eye out for each other. When you see people that you think are questionable knocking on your neighbors doors when they aren’t home, say hi and go talk to them. If they’re friends of your neighbors then no harm. If they’re casing the house, they will get the hint that the neighbors look out for each other and move on.

SunriseHtsRez May 20, 2010 (11:53 am)

This sounds like the same MO as the other roberies occurring in Sunrise Heights recently. I hope those two caught were the same guys doing them all and that these roberies stop. (Because they are getting pretty old.)

Thanks SPD! You all have a lot on your plate and we appriciate your hard work to help us resolve these problems!

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