West Seattle Crime Watch: Gas-line slashing; prowler spooked

Gas siphoning, or vandalism? One of our two West Seattle Crime Watch reports tonight involves a crime that could be either or both; the other involves a car prowler getting scared off – details on both, ahead:

From B:

Last night the gas line on our truck was slashed, confirmed by our mechanic as definite vandalism. We live a block away from the Admiral Junction. But, our mechanic mentioned they’ve had numerous identical incidents from the same area. For my family, the auto repair is estimated at $1500! Didn’t see any similar related posts to WSB, thought I’d mention it. Filing a police report this morning. Slashing happened sometime in the middle of night, car parked under our apartment. If they did it to steal gas, they might have got a gallon at most! I hope these people get caught or worse. Mechanic mentioned a similar gas line slashing happened in the area to a YMCA bus recently. Real nice.

This follows a siphoning report received recently from Eric – he wasn’t sure at first that’s what happened, but then several days later, his neighbor noticed a half-tank missing, and now he’s bought locking gas caps. He’s in the south Admiral area, near 37th/Hinds.

Our other new report, from Michelle:

At around 4:30 this morning my husband and I were awakened by the sound of an idling car (3rd time in the last week, and two trucks were prowled last week on our block – 5400 block of 45th). When I heard a car a few days ago, I turned on the lights in front of the house and the car left. SO, this morning, my husband went out and confronted the guy checking the car door of one of our neighbors… said dirtybadrobber jumped into the car and they took off. The car was a white Suzuki Samurai, black soft top, LP# [starts with 644-V]. The police were notified. The car came back through later – perhaps to collect another person?

11 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Gas-line slashing; prowler spooked"

  • chrisma June 1, 2011 (10:59 pm)

    About a month ago, someone cut a length of our neighbor’s garden hose in an attempt to steal/siphon gas from a truck parked on the street (Morgan Junction). Another neighbor witnessed the unsuccessful attempt. Apparently, some more modern vehicles have screens in place that prevent the classic siphoning through the fuel inlet. That may be why the victim in the first report had their fuel line slashed from underneath. Although, if I were that person I’d get a 2nd quote on the repair. $1,500 seems pretty steep even for one of the metal fuel lines.

  • brn2bm June 1, 2011 (11:35 pm)

    $1500 for a fuel line? Sounds like a local price. The $1200 estimate for my last repair was done for $400 once I checked outside West Seattle.

  • coffee June 2, 2011 (5:12 am)

    Years ago, living in another city, I was told by a local block watch to keep your exterior lights on at night. I have always kept my outside lights on all night, including lights in the back of the house. So far, I have been lucky. Neighbors who have been broken into at night, both times their outside lights were off.

  • Scott June 2, 2011 (8:27 am)

    I work at a local church in West Seattle and went to use our Mini Bus and found that it had no gas. After investigating why I found that the gas line had been cut. The tank was full the last time I had drove it.

  • Scott June 2, 2011 (11:42 am)

    I forgot the added cost to get it fixed and refill the bus.

  • AG June 2, 2011 (2:45 pm)

    Crap. We recently had our gas level lower quite a bit, but neither of us was positive when. It just seemed to need refilling much sooner than usual. A few days later the “check engine” light came on, indicating a fuel line issue. Gas cap was completely broken. Neither of us broke our gas cap.

    It’s a newer car, so we were pretty sure we had a siphon screen in place and figured some genius had been huffing gas. Got a locking fuel cap and called it good.

    Now I’m not so sure. Guess I’ll file a police report. How annoying.

  • Scott June 2, 2011 (5:00 pm)

    Just got the cost to repair the gas line $700.00 plus tax. What a joy.

  • poc June 2, 2011 (8:35 pm)

    Just saw the white Suziki mentioned in this story heading south on 46th from Brandon. Time: 8:30pm on Thursday. Maybe they live in the area?

  • Eric June 2, 2011 (11:04 pm)

    Gas thieves suck. If they can’t siphon your gas because of a screen or locking gas cap, some of them will also punch a hole in the tank to get your gas. A though, at times, they catch on fire.
    http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/10/1335018/tacoma-woman-20-burned-while-siphoning.html

  • WS Island Resident June 3, 2011 (5:22 am)

    File a comprehensive claim people… I have comprehensive with a $100 deductible on my old pickup for this reason. I lived in Ballard ten years ago where vehicle crime was a regular occurrence.

  • DWHJ June 3, 2011 (9:36 am)

    make sure u call on prices Seattle shops can be very over priced and under qualified

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