Busy late night/early morning for residents and police in two West Seattle neighborhoods. The Crime Watch reports, ahead:

Joel reports an incident northeast of Lowman Beach, 6700 block of Murray SW (map), that started just before midnight last night, in the vicinity of an apartment building:

It began with a man knocking on one of the tenants door and asking for help with jumping his car. Rather odd request, being that it was in the middle of the night and there were dozens of other random apts. and houses all around.

He was turned away and then for some odd reason; threw a tire iron against the door
of one of the other tenants of the same building.

It was at that point everything was brought to my attention as the person who had the iron thrown at their door called the police as the stranger walked back to the car that was stuck in the middle of Murray Avenue.

There I noticed my car’s hood popped up and upon inspection- the terminals from the battery were released and luckily the battery had not been stolen

From there all of us involved observed 2 people trying to push what looked like a red car. Didn’t get a read on the plate or make, was dark and farther down the road.

Finally the police arrived around 1210 am after several calls made by us and reportedly the police had already 5 other reports from these guys the same night!

The police took reports and photos, car was towed and all wrapped up around 1250 am.

The whole stretch of Murray Ave SW is dark, quite and never patrolled. Reports of numerous break in’s, stolen parts, etc have happened here quite frequently – we ask for the neighbors to be vigilant, and report anything- the more calls, the more likely we’ll actually get a police presence in a badly needed area!

Then from Westwood, Larry says his neighbor apparently interrupted a break-in attempt around 4:30 this morning:

My neighbor just informed me that he had chased away three dark complected, late teens to early twenties, male intruders from his home in the 8100 block of 30th Ave SW [map] in the Westwood area. He was lying in bed and heard some bumping and knocking sounds around his air conditioner in the window above his head. Assuming it was a bird, or a squirrel, he pounded on the wall several times. When it persisted, he opened his back door to find the intruders leaving his back yard and moseying out his back gate and up the alley. A housemate had just left for work at 4:30 AM and saw three young men standing on the corner down the street from their house. Perhaps the intruders thought no one was home.

He called the police, who said they arrived at the scene two minutes later with four cars and said in their report that the homeowner did not want contact. My neighbor thinks that perhaps he was showering when the police came and didn’t hear them. This was the third intrusion in the past two years for this household. Two other times, the intruders stole a TV, a camera and other items. The thieves broke down the back door the first time and busted out a bedroom window the second time.

Both incidents were logged on the city maps, though those don’t offer details till police-report narrative is available days later.