West Seattle Crime Watch: Car-theft wave

First, we received this West Seattle Crime Watch report e-mailed by Melody:

Our neighbor on 13th Ave SW has his car stolen sometime on Sunday evening. It was found on 11th Ave SW in good shape– and nothing went missing. The cops said this was the 7th car in the last week to have been stolen within a 4-block radius of 13th and Henderson.

I just think it’s important to note that 7 cars have been stolen within a 4-block radius in Highland Park…

To verify that, we checked the online-police-report system, which doesn’t always have details but at least have a record of the block and crime type. Here’s what we found in that general vicinity – not sure if it’s within that “4-block radius” since we don’t have the block number of the 13th SW theft, though – the theft of Melody’s neighbor’s car is not in the publicly viewable system yet:

Sep 5 2010 10:00PM – VEHICLE THEFT – 90XX BLOCK OF 13TH AVE SW
Sep 5 2010 10:00PM – VEHICLE THEFT – 88XX BLOCK OF 10TH AVE SW
Sep 5 2010 11:58AM – VEHICLE THEFT – 88XX BLOCK OF 8TH AVE SW
Sep 4 2010 4:15PM – VEHICLE THEFT – 88XX BLOCK OF 16TH AVE SW
Sep 4 2010 4:00PM – VEHICLE THEFT – 88XX BLOCK OF 15TH AVE SW
Aug 31 2010 3:00AM – VEHICLE THEFT – 90XX BLOCK OF DELRIDGE WAY SW

Southwest Precinct leadership confirmed two weeks ago that there’s been an increase in auto theft lately (as we reported here). And we’ll get our next update on local crime trends a week from tonight, when the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council resumes monthly meetings after a 2-month summer hiatus – 7 pm Tuesday, Sept. 21, at the SW Precinct meeting room.

11 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Car-theft wave "

  • d September 7, 2010 (11:29 pm)

    Hmmm. Going out right now to move the car back into the driveway where it belongs. Behind the gate and under the security light. Geez.

    And then I tell all the neighbors tomorrow. GEEZ!

  • d September 7, 2010 (11:34 pm)

    And thank you Melody for giving the heads up on this!

  • Finally Make Sense September 8, 2010 (12:16 am)

    Not the best area I guess. My insurance rates dropped almost 50% when I used my Queen Anne address.

    Is West Seattle a known “bad neighborhood” for theft? My insurance company seems to think so!

  • Carson September 8, 2010 (6:47 am)

    FMS,

    West Seattle is a “bad neighborhood”, you should move back to QA, that’s where most insurance cheats live anyways….

  • homesweethome September 8, 2010 (6:52 am)

    any in-city address/zip code has higher insurance rates according to our carrier – for kicks (and sadness) we call our carrier about once a year to check on suburban zip codes and its always $400-$500 less per year

  • Silly Goose September 8, 2010 (9:09 am)

    I find this interesting that they are all stolen in a certain radius. Block watch captains in that area should check into the background of any new residence that could have a history of crime. Someone must be close that is dabbling in car thefts, or a new chop shop has just been started in that area.

  • marty September 8, 2010 (9:22 am)

    I lived in the Shorewood area for several years and then moved to Alki. I was surprised to see my auto and homeowners rates rise after the move because Shorewood is only a mile from White Center. I asked my insurance company about it and was told that my new “zone” included High Point and that was the reason for the increase. Go figure…

  • Silly Goose September 8, 2010 (9:28 am)

    We too noticed that our policy increased so we challenged it with pictures of our garage and solid core locking entrance doors, and our insurance was lowered. We have never had either of our cars stolen or broken into because we park in our garage every night, and have car alarms. Might be worth it to build a garage, or if you are in a condo with no parking help fight the lousy new zoning that allows developers to build without adequate off street parking.

  • Proudparent September 8, 2010 (1:45 pm)

    So get this evening before last ..and long story short. my catylic converter was stolen… couldn’t figure out why my SUV sounded like a tank, my neighbor and husband looked underneath to see that the perp used a saw to cut pipes and get that part. turns out that they take some metals out of that tool for whatever reason. I filed a police report. this is how bold they were the car was right infront of my home next to my drive way and we are on a private road. guess it could happen anywhere but I’m super pissed. Would have been better if they just took the whole damn car now i have an added expense. Evidently the police are aware of this new trend, would be nice if the news would investigate….oh wait next stop..the media..

  • cjboffoli September 8, 2010 (5:48 pm)

    Lt. James mentioned something interesting about this at the SW District Council meeting last week. He said that police believe the recent uptick in auto theft is a result of a wave of car thieves being released from prison (after a police crackdown and harsher sentencing put them away several years ago). He also suggested that the number of auto thieves out there is fairly finite and that thefts are generally committed by a small group of known offenders.

  • Silly Goose September 8, 2010 (8:48 pm)

    Christopher I agree with you, I just told my neighbor that same thing when she came home to an almost empty house after being gone for the weekend. I told her that the home burgularies had slowed down but the group they had caught a few months back must have just been released.

    The catalytic converters have platinum in them and that is what they want with the price for platinum being so high right now. Sorry about the spelling I need spell check.

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