West Seattle Crime Watch: Hit-run; construction-site thefts; rack gone

Three reader reports in Crime Watch tonight. First:

That’s the spot near 21st and Roxbury where a truck knocked down a pole early this morning. The WSB’er who shared that photo and the next one heard it happen: “It sounded like someone dropped a dumpster from a 747,” he recalls. Looking around to see what happened, he saw a truck crashed into the pole, airbags deployed – and then, driven away before police arrived. Later, checking around the neighborhood, he discovered the suspect truck hadn’t gotten far:

Police, of course, were called again. Driver still on the loose, last we heard. Ahead, two other reports – thefts big and not-as-big:

From Sarah:

I thought I would write and let you know of some criminal activity in West Seattle over the holiday between the evening of the 21st and the evening of the 25th.

We are a custom residential general contractor and have been working on a project in West Seattle by the Fauntleroy ferry terminal for a few years. Over Christmas weekend both our project as well as the project next door were broken into.

Tens of thousands of dollars in tools and copper were stolen from our site. It also appears that a third robbery may have occurred as some items were left behind at our site that were not from either project but were broken into using the tools on site.

Based on the size and quantity of the items taken, the thieves would have had to come prepared with vehicles equipped to move such items. They also had the tools to enter and remove secured items. Thus, it appears that they likely cased the site prior to the robbery, and that they had experience.

The police have some leads to work with however if anyone saw anything suspicious, the information would be sincerely appreciated.

From John in the 9400 block of 27th SW:

White steel roof racks (were) stolen from behind my apartment sometime in the last couple of weeks. Should have chained them down. There was at least $30 worth of aluminum attached that could not be secured and I always thought they would just take that. Racks are old, no longer adjustable, painted several times with some paint runs. These are cut-down ladder racks with front and rear connected together. These are the type that sit on top a van without gutters. Two pieces of 9-foot 1-inch square tubing were attached on top. Tubing was cut at a 45-degree angle at front, cut for a roller at rear. I usually check daily but I have been too sick. Maybe they stripped the aluminum and dumped the steel racks on the street, which is the customized part I need most.

6 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Hit-run; construction-site thefts; rack gone"

  • Snowflake December 29, 2012 (10:21 am)

    apparently around 5:30 last night the “owner ” of the black truck came back , inspected the truck and was in it for a while. it is still there this am.

  • JR December 29, 2012 (10:13 pm)

    That truck is still parked on 21st just north of the incident, deployed airbags and all. Wonder if it’s related to the big sheriff’s office response on 20th I saw while walking to Zippy’s tonight…?

    • WSB December 29, 2012 (11:05 pm)

      this happened on the city side of the line, in my understanding, so KCSO wouldn’t be involved … I know our original tipster said he notified SPD again (and has a case # for it) after spotting the truck, so not sure why it’s still there.

  • Mike December 30, 2012 (4:21 am)

    John – Sorry your racks were stolen. My bet is that it all wound up at West Seattle Recycling down on West Msrginal Way. Interesting place to observe. Sure, a lot of people scrap legitimately, but there is also a whole lot of sketch going on down there, and at the other metal-to-cash yards in SODO and G-Town. A days worth of photographing all the vehicles and people arriving and departing might be a good deterrent. Dangerous, I know.

  • Snowflake December 30, 2012 (11:49 am)

    still sitting there….

  • Karsten December 30, 2012 (8:08 pm)

    Someone dumped a used christmas tree and hit my parked car with it yesterday. They also dumped a christmas tree in my neighbors driveway.

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