West Seattle Crime Watch: Stolen blue Camry; 2 car prowls

First – no arrest so far in this afternoon’s armed robbery. We do have 3 Crime Watch reader reports. First – Melissa asks that you be on the lookout for this stolen car:

My boyfriend’s car was stolen today in Westwood between 2 pm and 7:15 pm. It’s a blue 1991 Toyota Camry with the plate 695-ZHJ. There’s noticeable damage to both the front and back bumper. It’s scratched up and pretty much black on the corners. Nothing valuable inside, just hoping to locate it.

Call 911 if you see it, as advised by SPD via @getyourcarback.

The other two are car prowls. From Amie:

Car was rummaged through. Nothing valuable taken because nothing valuable was in the car, but papers were strew on the seat from the glove box. Seaview neighborhood.

And from Conor:

We live on 47th SW between Charlestown and Spokane and had our car window smashed (early Monday) at 2 am. Cameras show a man and a women team working each side of the street. They wiped the fog off nearly every car on the block looking for stuff.

Cameras are in fact on the agenda for our area’s next crime-fighting meeting: West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network meets Tuesday night, 6:30 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster), all welcome, even if you’re not a BW captain or even (yet) in a BW.

16 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Stolen blue Camry; 2 car prowls"

  • SillyGoose January 22, 2013 (9:00 am)

    Love that you have camera’s I hope this helps catch them!

  • G January 22, 2013 (9:25 am)

    Car prowls are commonplace in WS now. My car has been ransacked THREE times in the last few years.

  • G January 22, 2013 (10:28 am)

    Wecome to “Fortress West Seattle.”

  • camera user January 22, 2013 (10:59 am)

    Dropcams are great -if you haven’t looked into them yet. Wireless, 720P video monitoring -even has 2 way audio.

    They sell for $150 online and they offer a DVR service which stores video for you. Also included is a motion sensor that sends Txt messages to your cell phone.

    If one or two people had them installed on each block I think some thieves would start to think twice. Obviously won’t deter everyone.

    I have one pointed at my car in the Admiral district.

  • Junction mom January 22, 2013 (11:17 am)

    That report from Seaview sounds like my experience. We live right behind Rite Aid and I know for a fact that if I leave my doors unlocked, especially if the car is parked on the street, and sometimes in the front driveway, that it will be gone through. ‘Fortunately’ they have only taken things of monetary value, which I don’t leave anymore, not my kids books or old CDs and they’ve never broken a window. I might have to try that camera.

  • wsn00b January 22, 2013 (11:24 am)

    @camera user: I got excited about dropcam (few posts about it on WSB) but then realized that each camera will eat up approx 60GB of upload per month. Last I checked, I have a 250GB data cap and I really want to minimize interacting with Comcast “customer service”. A reasonable dropcam deployment of 3-4 cameras would eat up most of my bandwidth! Dropcam needs to do local DVR of full video and only send motion events to the cloud to be useful. Still looking for a better option. Will see what suggestions the blockwatch captain meeting turns up.

  • DbCoop January 22, 2013 (1:02 pm)

    re: dropcam. just buy a $3 sign that says smile you’re on closed circuit camera. If every block had them that would deter break ins as much as having the camera itself.

  • camera user January 22, 2013 (1:26 pm)

    @wsn00b: Agree that a local dvr solution would be a nice option (unless someone takes the drive). But it’s also nice that dropcam offers the dvr service. For me 2 cameras -one in the front of the house, and one in the backyard covers most of my needs. And allows plenty of bandwidth for movies etc. Not sure if Comcast ever checks uploads that are close to 250 btw… So maybe just have 1 or 2 recording?

    Just last week while at work I was alerted to movement in my driveway, a red pickup truck backed in and I was able to monitor it. It was just turning around, but still felt good that I could have reported it to the police within a minute if necessary.

  • scott January 22, 2013 (3:29 pm)

    I live on 49th ave near Spokane St. and also had my car ransacked recently. Noticed it Sunday morning but I don’t drive it daily so who knows when it happened. They got a Go Pro video camera (used for action sports)that I studiply left in the glovebox.
    Usually pretty safe around here but stuff happens I guess.

  • WS rats in a cage January 22, 2013 (3:36 pm)

    People who “prowl” cars are the scum of the earth!

  • rockergirl5678 January 22, 2013 (4:16 pm)

    Several of my neighbors cars were vandalized and broken into last night – windows broken on 3 cars and one with doors unlocked was ransacked on SW Webster between 30th and 31st SW. Not cool!

  • West Seattle Hipster January 22, 2013 (5:30 pm)

    Perhaps it’s time for emphasis patrols by the local precinct?

  • Melissa January 22, 2013 (5:56 pm)

    Just though I’d give an update on the stolen car. They located it this morning on 112th ave in white center. They took one plate and left the other one with tabs in the trunk.. Other than that nothing was taken. Found a syringe inside though. But the good news is that it was found and still has gas and can run.

  • Melissa January 23, 2013 (11:59 am)

    Oh and according to the guy who towed the car, he said the police were still there when he arrived and said they had “caught the bad guy.” So we’re assuming the thief was caught.

  • BlairJ January 23, 2013 (12:42 pm)

    I am looking into the Apex Solar LED Security Light/Camera Kit with DVR. It sends pictures wirelessly to the DVR when it detects motion. Several units can send to one DVR. No concern about bandwith, but apparently no online connectivity either.

  • Carter Maslan January 23, 2013 (10:12 pm)

    @wsn00b – our neighborhood uses camiolog.com – it’s bandwidth-efficient and works with many cameras/dvrs. I work on the product, so I’m happy to send you more info if you’d like.

Sorry, comment time is over.