In West Seattle Crime Watch today, three more reader reports of car prowling/break-ins – read on for details, including what the prowlers did – and did NOT! – take:
From Sarah:
My car was broken into (Tuesday) night at 44th Ave SW, a ½ block from Lafayette. They squirted my lotion all over the car and slashed the fabric ceiling of my car. All of my belongings were thrown about, but nothing appears to be missing. This is the second time in the last three months this has happened to me. It makes me anxious because they vandalized my car this time so it seems that their behavior is getting worse. I would just like to try and figure out if the same person is vandalizing the cars in Admiral or if it is different people and what we can do to deter this behavior.
Also Tuesday night, Kathy reports, the cars belonging to her household were ransacked:
Not much taken except for change from both cars (despite the Garmin and sunglasses being out too) and we did leave the doors unlocked….Admiral/Alki, 52nd and Pritchard.
And B sent a report this week about a car prowl a week earlier:
My SUV was rummaged through last Monday night the 9th, off Delridge Ave SW and 23rd Ave SW. The car prowlers did not take my change, stereo or CD’s. They threw everything out of the glove compartment and did take my iPhone car charger and a cheap pair of sunglasses. Strange, huh! Risk robbery charges for $10 worth of stuff.
I left my car unlocked by accident thinking it was just the door locked not the alarm set. A neighbor left a note a week prior complaining of my car alarm going off around 2-3am and insisted I deactivate it because it was disturbing sleepers. (obviously car prowlers were checking my car out and my alarm was protecting my car) So I have been locking the doors only, not placing the alarm on to avoid neighborhood conflict. However, that day I forgot to hit the “lock doors” button inside my car.
Looks like I’m gonna start putting my alarm back on because I want these prowlers warned or stopped! I’ll deal with my neighbors somehow.
While we certainly don’t get reader reports on all crimes in the area – and reporting them to police is more important than reporting them to us, if it’s either/or! – we’ve certainly received more car-prowl reports than usual lately, so we’re checking with police to see what their trends are showing. And we’ll reiterate – even if nothing was taken, PLEASE tell police, so that they can adjust staffing/patrols appropriately – you can even report this type of crime online (but if you see a car prowl IN PROGRESS – do call 911!).
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