White Center would-be kidnapper may have tried again

4:26 PM: Just published on our partner site White Center Now: The King County Sheriff’s Office says a burglary attempt this past Sunday night might be linked to the attempted kidnapping two weeks ago. Both happened in the same block, 3rd/104th vicinity, and in both cases, fast-acting family members intervened. Here’s the newest story; here’s the previous story from early June. P.S. If you noticed helicopters in Arbor Heights/Shorewood/White Center this afternoon – those were TV choppers responding to this new information.

ADDED 5:39 PM: We asked KCSO Sgt. Cindi West if there was any more descriptive information about the suspect/s – unfortunately, she says, what’s in the story is everything they know.

34 Replies to "White Center would-be kidnapper may have tried again"

  • Bonnie June 18, 2013 (4:28 pm)

    anybody hear of something happening at Roxhill playfield? I heard of a story of a 3 year old being snatched by a 60 year old man over by the street on Roxbury but he was caught. Just recently.

    • WSB June 18, 2013 (4:48 pm)

      If you have a ballpark date we can check the police records … I haven’t seen that kind of incident turn up, on the map or blotter, though – TR

  • White Center Parent June 18, 2013 (4:48 pm)

    I posted this to the whitecenternow, but I am also going to post it here:

    This is so frightening! Have the police released any other identifying information about the suspect? If he was wearing shorts, then I expect they would know his skin tone. Do they have the female in custody or any description of her? I hope they can get prints off of the vehicle. I am sure the police know a lot more than they can tell us right now, but if they have any more information on the physical description of either the male or female suspects it would help the citizens in helping to identify suspicious individuals (and this I believe would put us more at ease). Do you know if the police are planning to hold a community meeting or anything to discuss these events?

  • chuck and sally's van man June 18, 2013 (5:01 pm)

    Similar questions I had, WCP. They have the truck; you’d think prints for sure and possibly DNA. Are the FBI on this? I don’t have kids, but is beyond terrifying. Hope they find these sick people very quickly.

    • WSB June 18, 2013 (5:08 pm)

      I’m asking KCSO.

  • ACG June 18, 2013 (5:08 pm)

    Scary. Hope they can get some fingerprints or something off the car. This dude needs to be put away.

  • Heather June 18, 2013 (5:25 pm)

    Oh my god.

  • Amanda June 18, 2013 (5:43 pm)

    Just an FYI – I know it’s in an hour – but…

    WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL Community Safety Meeting,
    TUESDAY, June 18, 2013
    @ Southwest Police Precinct,
    2300 SW Webster, 7 ā€“ 8:30pm
    The June meeting will be open for discussion of
    various topics and community concerns. Please sent topics or issues to our e-mail below or bring your
    questions or concerns in written form to the meeting.

  • Bonnie June 18, 2013 (6:07 pm)

    Tracy, I don’t know what day but it was about 2 weeks ago. Someone from the Y told me about it and that the little league was being extra careful after the event.

  • Joe Szilagyi June 18, 2013 (6:09 pm)

    Do they have the woman in custody?

  • Gabrielle June 18, 2013 (6:41 pm)

    I hope the police are alerting West Seattle & White Center daycare and preschool facilities to be on high alert when out on playgrounds. Very few of these local facilities have tight security. Most of them you can just walk right in or onto the playground. Whoever this couple is they are beyond bold so until they are in custody, any facility that looks after young children should take extra precautions.

  • Resident3 June 18, 2013 (10:40 pm)

    Hi all, remember the lady in the park with her young son a month or so ago, she thought the guy was aiming for her, maybe he was aiming for the kid. Would be worth keeping her story and description in mind too. I think it was Lincoln park??

  • WD June 18, 2013 (11:58 pm)

    My two boys are 3 and nearly 1, and I am TERRIFIED to let them out of my sight or to even leave the house lately.

    Parents need to know how best to protect our babies. Maybe it’s time for that alarm system…

  • Dave June 19, 2013 (6:52 am)

    “When deputies arrived in the area they saw a red Mazda Pickup driving quickly out of the area. When deputies tried to stop the vehicle, a female passenger exited the vehicle and the vehicle sped off. The vehicle crashed a short distance away and the suspect fled on foot. The suspect was wearing clothes that matched those of the burglary suspect and was described as ā€œtall and skinny.ā€ HOW THE HELL DID BOTH SUSPECTS EVADE CAPTURE? These were actual cops, right?

  • sam-c June 19, 2013 (7:02 am)

    if the criminals keep coming to the same area, is this targeted (like domestic/ custody dispute) or random? so scary either way- hopefully they catch these people

  • lox June 19, 2013 (8:06 am)

    I’m so horrified by this. I have the same questions as everyone else. HOW did they both get away when the vehicle crashed? We need a community update from police and assurance that they are using as many resources as possible to catch these people.

    • WSB June 19, 2013 (10:14 am)

      Just so everyone is clear – This happened in the unincorporated area, so the law-enforcement agency involved is the King County Sheriff’s Office. (Someone mentioned “e-mailing police,” but if you mean SPD, it’s not their case.) I have a followup question out to KCSO’s media liaison to ask what happened to the passenger. – Tracy

  • Amber June 19, 2013 (9:16 am)

    I hope they catch this creep quickly and 1)get him help 2)put him away for a good long while. That said, let us not allow fear to distract us from the fact that violent crime is on the decrease nationally, in fact has not been at such a low level since before the advent of color TV. Overall, our kids are pretty safe!

    To put it another way: The Department of Justice reports that of the 800,000 children reported ā€œmissingā€ in the United States each year, 115 are the result of ā€œstereotypical kidnappingā€ ā€” a stranger snatching the child. (That’s less than one THOUSANDTH of one percent.) About 90 percent of abductees return home within 24 hours and the vast majority are teenage runaways. – See more at: http://www.freerangekids.com/crime-statistics/#sthash.Ybgjt9PU.dpuf

    Of all children under age 5 murdered from 1976-2005 ā€“
    31% were killed by fathers
    29% were killed by mothers
    23% were killed by male acquaintances
    7% were killed by other relatives
    3% were killed by strangers

    It’s never excusable to harm a child, but I take comfort in the knowledge that most people out there are more likely to protect them.

  • Resident3 June 19, 2013 (9:19 am)

    @ Dave. My question too! I’m emailing that same question to the police, lets see if I get any info.

  • WD June 19, 2013 (9:19 am)

    I agree Dave! Who was chasing them?!

  • Sunshine June 19, 2013 (9:55 am)

    My boyā€™s practice at Roxhill for the baseball and we were told to be on the lookout for an older man that was taking pictures of kids and caressing a little girls hair through the fence. Do you know where the truck came from? We had a neighbor who had a little red truck that was stolen a while back and I am just wondering if it was the same truck.

  • evergreen June 19, 2013 (10:33 am)

    I hope that the other creeps described in the above posts were actually reported to the police? So that there is an actual police report? That is he only way that a case can be built against those guys. Even if it seems trivial or brief, please report these events to the police, people.

  • LtotheB June 19, 2013 (11:55 am)

    I think in a lot of these fondling cases there is no police report. We as a community need better advice / guidelines on what to do.

    I was with my kid at Lincoln Park a few years back and a guy was playing with a little girl on the swings and slides. I assumed it was her grandpa. He was playing with her hair, etc. And taking pictures of her on his cell phone. Then he leaves and the girl’s Mom comes over. I asked the Mom “do you know that guy because he was totally touching your daughter and taking her picture” and she said “what guy?” Yes, I called the police but there was no police report, I was told they would send an officer. The Mom did not call the police, she seemed freaked out and immediately left.

    Watch your kids, even when they’re right in front of you.

    I REALLY wish I’d have taken the guy’s picture with my own phone. Next time, DO THAT.

  • Td June 19, 2013 (12:09 pm)

    Hi WSB, yes I meant KCSO. I tried Cindi West by phone, (even tho i am not media) there wasn’t an email. Been calling, the line is busy. And i dont tweet, which is another way to reach her. I knew WSB was probably following up but thought more calls from concerned citizens would be good too. I’m going to keep calling other KCSO numbers, I hope others do too.

    • WSB June 19, 2013 (1:49 pm)

      Sgt. West’s reply is what I surmised: “She got out and then the vehicle took off. The deputy chased the vehicle so we never found her.”

  • White Center Parent June 19, 2013 (2:31 pm)

    I plan to follow up with the KCSO as well. We want some answers/information. If they have details they can’t reveal because it will “harm” the case, that is one thing…and they need to TELL US THAT. Explain to us that they are working on leads (if there are any). To just say that what is in the story is “everything they know” makes it sound like extremely shoddy police work. We as a community want answers and information. I found an article on Q13 that said the suspect is a white man, so that is an important detail that the KCSO hasn’t released to us. I’m just really frustrated at the lack of information provided to the community.

  • BsMomma June 19, 2013 (2:58 pm)

    I had a parent tell me about a man in his 60’s watching a little boy at Castle Park. He was not with the little boy, he showed up later on his own. Thankfully all the parents noticed the guy and worked together to keep tabs on the kids and the mans whereabouts. My 1st response was, Did anyone call the cops? But what did he do? Nothing…..yet. But if an officer showed up and the guy took off, obviously he was up to no good. Give the police a description etc…. Right? Do you call 911 or another number? Or at all?

    • WSB June 19, 2013 (3:29 pm)

      Call 911. Please. Don’t EVER hesitate to call 911 about something happening NOW or just happened. The call-takers will route you elsewhere if needed.

  • Gabrielle June 19, 2013 (5:33 pm)

    I am also concerned (like White Center Parent) that police are not pursuing this aggressively enough because the crime at this point is largely intent, not action taken. Is this serious enough in their eyes for them to check the truck for fingerprints or even DNA? To question everyone that lives on that block to ask if they’ve seen the truck around? To build a profile? Why haven’t they put out a picture of the stolen truck that is obviously in their possession so that citizens can call if they know someone who recently acquired the truck?

    To the question above – YES call 911.Report a “suspicious person” – people do it all the time, probably every single day in West Seattle.

  • RB June 20, 2013 (7:55 am)

    I agree – it’s frustrating that the police and media don’t seem overly concerned about this. For this kind of thing – the mayor or those running for mayor should get a task force going.

  • White Center Parent June 20, 2013 (10:12 am)

    I have been tweeting Cindi West (and a few others) and I haven’t gotten any response. I am so frustrated. Maybe I am being overly sensitive, but I wonder if this was happening somewhere other than White Center if there would be more response. But that is a whole other issue. I’m going to keep following up.

  • Td June 20, 2013 (12:29 pm)

    @wcp I’ve spent about an hour yesterday being transferred from KCSO to SPD to white center precinct and 911 a few times. No one with info tho. It’s also sad that I keep mentioning this issue to parents I know in west Seattle and if they don’t read the blog or missed the news the other night ey don’t know anything about this. :/

  • White Center Parent June 20, 2013 (4:04 pm)

    I called and spoke to Cindi West. She was very nice, empathetic, and spent time talking to me about my concerns about (what I perceive to be) the lack of information available to the community. I told her I was going to post here the gist of the conversation and she asked me to let her contact Tracy herself directly, which I agreed to, so I am not going to speak to the contents of our conversation here out of respect for her request. I am happy that I got right through to speak to her on the first try calling. She was running to a meeting, so I am not sure when we will hear about her future conversation with Tracy. Hopefully soon.

    • WSB June 20, 2013 (5:28 pm)

      WCP, I will publish this in a couple different spots too, including the next Crime Watch roundup tonight and also standalone on White Center Now, but this is the entirety of what Sgt. West has just sent. There is no additional information beyond what has been released but if this helps clarify for anyone:
      .
      “I had a call from a White Center citizen who was upset and felt we were not putting enough information out about the recent attempted child abduction and burglary. I wanted to give you some information to pass on to your readers.

      The attempted child abduction from 2 weeks ago and the recent burglary “may or may not” be related. Given the facts that within 2 weeks, on the same street, a man grabbed a child in a front yard and on the second incident a man tried to gain entry into a room (where a child was sleeping), we felt it important to alert the public in case the two are connected. We, of course, do not know if the two crimes are related.

      We also do not know yet if the stolen truck leaving the area is related or not, but since the deputy saw it in the neighborhood not long after the Burglary it is a possibility. We have released information hoping to get tips on who might have been driving the truck.

      Our detectives are working hard on these cases and are following up on all tips and leads.

      We are continuing to keep the public informed so that our community remains vigil(ant).

      Remember you are the eyes and ears of our community! Please remain aware and call 911 to report anything suspicious.”

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