Comments on: West Seattle Crime Watch: Car break-ins; other notes

By: BP

BP — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:21:22 +0000

Leaving items out in plain view is like feeding wild animals… It encourages bad behavior. When my car was broken into, I had very little in there, but the mount for the old satellite radio I used to have was still there (I hung my car fresheners on there…) so I imagine they thought they’d find that in the console… I’ve taken to leaving my car unlocked so the jerks can just satisfy themselves there’s nothing worth stealing without breaking my windows.

By: WSB

WSB — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:01:49 +0000

Just a mistake, not sexism. I usually write s/he and her/his, among other language points. I’m a middle-aged feminist, raised in a matriarchal family, who’s fought sexism all her life, don’t have time to bore you with the history and it doesn’t matter anyway, I just need to fix the error, sorry. – TR

By: Big G

Big G — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:38:01 +0000

I have a friend that leaves his glovebox open and center console open whenever he parks, just to show thieves, “hey there’s nothing in there.” While I don’t do that, and sometimes make fun of him, he has never had a break-in while doing this.

Also, at the risk of being incendiary. . . Why do you use the pronoun “he’s” when describing my comment? You have no idea what gender I am. Do you assume I am a man b/c only a man would be insensitive enough to blame the victim? Check your sexism at the door WSB. There is nothing from that comment to indicate I am male or female.

By: Monosyllabic Girl

Monosyllabic Girl — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:02:06 +0000

I’m not proud to be admitting this, but I think the mess in my car acted as a put-off for thieves once also. One smashed window and one digital camera still remained buried under clothing and a plethora of children’s art projects and bric-a-brac. :-/

By: WSB

WSB — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:37:06 +0000

Sometimes people just plumb forget they left something behind, and that might have been the case. I almost had a heart attack one night a few months ago when, after covering something for the site, I had to drive to another Seattle neighborhood to meet the rest of the family, and parked on the street a few blocks from where we were rendezvousing. For some reason I forgot my laptop bag was in the car. It’s not a gold-plated laptop but it is fairly high-end because, in order to produce WSB, we have to have a fast chip, lots of memory, etc. After maybe 15 minutes I realized with a heartbeat skip what I’d done, and all but ran the two blocks to our vehicle, expecting to find it gone, wondering where in the world I was going to get the $ to replace it. Miraculously it was still there. Anyway, we have a rule against “blame the victim” comments but Big G’s goes through just for one reminder to ALL of us – Please make sure all your friends and family know that it’s just not safe to leave anything in a vehicle, ever, not just for our own property’s protection, but because Big G is right … the only reason criminals continue this, is because some just don’t heed the warnings. If every car was empty, they wouldn’t waste their time. (I also heard another helpful reminder recently – If you decide to take a chance on putting something in your trunk, do it BEFORE you get to your destination, where car prowlers might be lurking and watching.) – TR

By: Big G

Big G — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:10:15 +0000

At the risk of sounding like a jerk. . . What I find unbelievable is that someone left a purse in a car, in plain view no less, anywhere, let alone at West Crest, a place everyone knows is high car prowl.

And this is why West Crest is high car prowl, because thieves continue to score jackpots like this.

By: Alki Resident

Alki Resident — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:18:47 +0000

Who leaves their purse on the front seat and expects to find it there again? This park will never get cameras, this has gone on for years and still no action has been taken. Enough is enough.