West Seattle Crime Watch: Carjacking arrest; 4 reader reports

| Crime | West Seattle news

This afternoon’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup starts with word of an arrest in the carjacking two weeks ago. From this SPD Blotter report:

A 29-year-old suspect is in custody for a carjacking that occurred last month near the West Seattle Golf Course.

During the course of the investigation, robbery detectives developed information on the possible identity of the suspect. A wanted bulletin was sent out to officers. On February 10th, detectives received information that the suspect had been arrested by King County Sheriff’s deputies on an unrelated charge. The next day, the suspect was brought into the Robbery office where he was interviewed by detectives. After the interview, the suspect was re-booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.

Now on to WSB reader reports: From 44th/Spokane, Melanie was the victim of a car prowl:

Someone got into my car last night, parked on the street, I thought it was locked but must not have been. They ransacked it (glove box, console, etc.) obviously looking for something more specific of value than they found. Some things of value were left – Bob stroller, sunglasses, empty laptop bag…. I don’t think anything was taken – that I can tell. Also it appears someone sat in the driver seat because some of my gages were turned on/off etc.

Also about two weeks ago, some broke the window of a car on my street, owned by a guest staying with us. They stole a camera. He filed a report with the police.

We also received a quick report from Shannon – who came back from church last Sunday to discover that her home near Myrtle Reservoir Park had been broken into.

After the jump, a possible casing, followed by a bike theft with a scooter left behind:

From Josh in Highland Park:

As I rode my bike away from my house this morning I noticed a man standing down our alley. I thought it was strange and decided to circle the block for another look. A girl came out of a backyard and joined the man and I watched them peering into back yards slowly moving up the alley. As I circled back home to call the police a third girl joined the group from a separate block and they turned around the alley they just walked down. They knew I was watching, the group would not make eye contact and they obviously had no destination and were circling the neighborhood. I lost sight of the group when I went home to call the police and they arrived within five minutes. I drove my truck around the neighborhood trying to spot the group again but they either had a car or were inside a house.

A description – all three were early twenties – one male, white, about 6’ with some light facial hair, blue jeans and an orange backpack. Girl #1 was probably 5-4, white but slightly darker skin, dark hair past her shoulders and a dark pink fleece type jacket. The second girl was white, probably 5-5, black jeans, black hooded sweatshirt, died black hair with blond tips. Both girls had nothing with them. This took place in Highland park on the 8000 block between 13th and 14th ave SW.

The man and girl #1 spent a lot of time in the alley behind (address in 7900 block of) 13th ave SW, the police checked the property over but did not see any signs of forced entry. I really hope no one in our neighborhood was robbed this morning….

Also in Highland Park, from Hilari:

My kid left his friend’s red Schwinn unlocked on our front porch on 14th and Kenyon Sunday. It was taken some time after 6 p.m. They left a Razor Scooter in its place, if anybody is missing one.

Jen February 12, 2013 (4:25 pm)

Curious to know what time this morning Josh saw the people in Highland Park. I, too, noticed a man unfamiliar to me in our neighborhood this morning, not walking around, but seemingly just standing and looking up the street, like he was waiting for someone. He wasn’t on a corner, but between two houses, kind of back off the sidewalk. Just seemed odd. (This was in Riverview, not too far from where Josh describes).

happy February 12, 2013 (5:09 pm)

Remember: whenever you see something odd (or even “just not right”), call the police! They don’t know who belongs in your neighborhood– but you do. If you call, the police can check out things and if something is needs to be handled, they are ready.

This, by the way, is what the police told me after a neighbor called 9-1-1 about “suspicious people” who were actually stealing loads of stuff. Happily one neighbor’s dog alerted to the bad guys, the police came, and two people were hauled away in handcuffs. = )

When in doubt, CALL!

Jasper February 12, 2013 (5:30 pm)

I also saw these people wandering through the alley between 13th and 14th, near Holden street. They were looking into backyards, but when I made eye contact as I was taking out some garbage, they quickly ducked down the side of a nearby apartment building and up the street.

Keep your eyes open, neighbors, the scumbags are out and about in the daytime, never a good sign.

G February 12, 2013 (5:32 pm)

The car prowls on or around 44th are almost comonplace, if you tend to be absentminded leave your car unlocked eventually you’ll get “prowled” – guaranteed.

My car has been ransacked twice.

Josh February 12, 2013 (6:09 pm)

I saw the trio around the 8000 block of 13th and 14th ave SW around 8:15am this morning. Hopefully they were scared away before they stole anything.

Eric February 12, 2013 (7:00 pm)

Josh and Jasper, did either one if you call the cops?

Jasper February 13, 2013 (8:25 am)

Not this time. They were passing through quickly and were gone by the time I turned around. If I called in every disheveled person passing through my alley I’d be on the phone all day, every day.

Tuesdays are especially bad with the food bank across the street now accepting bussed-in people from nickelsville etc. It’s a heavy mix of the truly needy and the opportunistic scumbags, and the neighborhood crawls with them all morning.

I’m not blaming Nickelsville residents per se, but there’s a sizeable complement of true dirtbags who camp in the tarp cities nearby and use the food bank bus as a “free ride to neighborhood pickings” every tuesday.

It’s time to get rid of the “temporary” encampment down there. Have you seen the tarp city in the wooded islet across the street? There must be at least a couple dozen people living there, outside of the scrutiny of even the very moderate amount of oversight in NIckelsville. And the woods are full of tents, too.

From my vantage point (up on a hillside with a good view of several surrounding blocks) I see a drug deal, a metal scavenger, a tagger, a vandal, gang activity, car thieves or opportunistic skulkers almost every day.

I’m not sure how many calls it takes for the SPD to flag someone as a “nuisance tipper”, but I bet it’s a lot less than what I would be reporting if I called in everything I see.

This neighborhood isn’t going to get any better until that encampment is gone and the woods are scoured out. I’m not holding my breath.

WSB February 13, 2013 (8:29 am)

Jasper – rather than 911 necessarily, if you have never spoken to Officer Jon Kiehn, community police team officer for the eastern side of WS, I would highly recommend it. Google for Southwest Precinct Community Police Team and you should find his contact info. This is what they are all about – TR

Jasper February 13, 2013 (8:41 am)

Thanks for the advice TR, but I’m not sure how helpful a conversation that consists of “my neighborhood sees a constant stream of skulkers and scumbags” would be to anybody. I’m pretty sure they already know that.

WSB February 13, 2013 (8:52 am)

Their job is to figure out what to do about that, outside the normal confines. See the saga of the 36th/Morgan house. Also, encampments on parkland have been removed before – see our archives about Camp Long.

joel February 13, 2013 (10:33 pm)

is the tent city land zoned for long term camping? why does the ‘no dumping’ sign have loads of garbage dumped all over? maybe the sign reads – ‘please dump your crap here’

would the city allow me to run a campground and a dump in my front yard?

if one of our yards looked like that we’d be fined and sued by the city, yet on city land it’s okay?

residents of the area should get a 75% reduction on their property tax bill being the city is reducing our property values

Steven J. Curry, MA February 14, 2013 (12:38 pm)

My name is Steven J. Curry. I am the Operations Director of the West Seattle Food Bank. I want to bring some clarity to comments made under this post regarding West Seattle car jacking. The West Seattle Food Bank serves Senior’s only on Tuesday’s 55+. There is no “food bank bus” or coordinated transportation of any Nickelsville residents to the food bank. We have experiened no issues with any Nickelville residents that have accessed our services during distribution hours on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s.

WSB February 14, 2013 (1:09 pm)

I don’t think Jasper meant the WS Food Bank – his/her comments have indicated s/he lives in Highland Park, so 35th/Morgan would not be “across the street” – but hopefully they will clarify if they return to this thread. – TR

Jasper February 14, 2013 (6:56 pm)

It’s a local church’s ongoing community effort, which they term a “food bank” on the signage. Nothing to do with WSFB.

Recently small school busses have been showing up on Tuesday mornings with folks from down the hill, which some of the less savory area campers also appear to be taking advantage of.

Just not for food. :(