West Seattle Crime Watch: Water tower vandalized; mailbox prowling

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Thanks to E for the tip that police were called early this morning to check out tagging vandalism on a water tower at Myrtle Reservoir. (We’ve blurred the tags in our photo at right.) The report came from a security officer just after 5 am, according to Det. Renee Witt in SPD media relations; the officer discovered the chain-link fence around the tower had been cut, and then noticed the tagging on the east side of the tower. We’re checking with Seattle Public Utilities to see how soon it’ll be painted over (ironically, they are a lead agency for the city’s graffiti-vandalism-fighting efforts), and will add that update when we get it.

ADDED 11:56 AM: And here’s the update from SPU spokesperson Ingrid Goodwin:

SPU crews are onsite now making repairs on the vandalized fence and tower. Weather permitting, the graffiti will be removed and the tower will be repainted today. If the rain becomes a problem, crews may need a few extra days to complete the work. We’ll know more later this afternoon on how quickly they are progressing on the repairs.

(back to original 11:38 am report) Another Crime Watch note:

MAILBOX PROWLING: From Becky:

We live in a complex in the 3600 block of Beach Drive SW. We have a locking mailbox and the postman has confirmed that it appears someone tried to pry it open. Please make other residents in the area aware of this recent mailbox prowl and to keep their eyes open for any strangers around their mailboxes.

P.S. Just added to the West Seattle Crime Watch page – a scrollable “widget” showing the latest tweets from the recently launched Seattle Police Tweets by Beat accounts that cover West Seattle (six accounts plus the main SPD Twitter account). These are short descriptions of location/type of incident, about an hour delayed (and note that SPD does not tweet certain types of responses). So now you can browse them without having a Twitter account or going to Twitter’s website, if you’re interested.

Kacie October 26, 2012 (12:08 pm)

We live in a secure apartment building at 62nd and SW Stevens. Our mailbox appeared to be tampered with as well. We had the manager replace the lock. I had suspicious activity on a debit card reported a week later ($700 to a telecom company in Dubai), which may not be related, but was a big coincidence. Heads up!

old timer October 26, 2012 (1:20 pm)

Maybe that fence around the water tower should be electrified.
One of the reasons they buried the reservoir was for ‘security’ of the water supply.
Well, how ‘secure’ is it?

East Coast Cynic October 26, 2012 (2:00 pm)

It wouldn’t be “Seattle Nice” to electrify the water tower. Somebody might get hurt:).

KM October 26, 2012 (3:39 pm)

Is the water tower vandalism the reason for the helicopter over the area around 3pm? It’s always disconcerting.

WSB October 26, 2012 (3:53 pm)

Yes, KIRO TV sent it over for video of that, we managed to find out.

Tony October 26, 2012 (6:29 pm)

Has it been established that this definitely happened Thurs night? The reason I ask is because when I was walking my dog up in the park on Weds night she was reacting to something or someone in the direction of the H2O towers, which usually is not the case. Also somewhat surprised that there are not security cams on the storage towers.

heads up October 26, 2012 (9:28 pm)

fwiw, the tags have been on the water tower for at least a week; that’s when I noticed them anyway.

WSB October 26, 2012 (10:37 pm)

Well, for whatever reason, myriad people including passersby and neighbors (we received texts, e-mails, and a predawn tweet) all simultaneously noticed it this morning for the first time, and 5 am is when police were called by security – have no idea how often they check the periphery; it was news to SPU too when we contacted them. If they haven’t been patroling that often, maybe they will now.

ROBERT October 27, 2012 (10:19 am)

a time proven cure for this kind on nonsense is a twelve gauge shotgun with two ounces of split peas and rocksalt applied directly to the backsides of the culprit with vigor . very effective and only needed once. besides the officers need target practice .

WSB October 27, 2012 (11:45 am)

Don’t know if they carry those. Meantime, we just drove past and it has been painted over. Short of catching the culprits, that’s the best way to discourage them, is to keep painting it over however often is needed. Hope there won’t be a recurrence here.

M. October 27, 2012 (7:34 pm)

Does anyone else remember the water feature that used to be on the Myrtle St. side of the park? IIRC, it was called “Seatlte Under Water” or something. It was a large aquarium, you would view the Seattle downtown skyline through the water in the tank, bubbles of air were released in timed intervals. Pretty neat, sadly it didn’t last long before vandals destroyed it. A repair was started, it too was vandalized.
Sad…it was a very unusual and a nice feature.

I’m fed up with all the graffiti I’m seeing around town, especially along I-5, and most every building on Airport Way…
Nearly every gas station pump’s screen, and every restaurant’s restroom mirror in town has been etched. Pity.

Sorry, comment time is over.