West Seattle Crime Watch: Victim chases robber, gets purse back

A purse-snatching victim got her purse back after chasing the man who tried to steal it at the bus stop by Roxhill Park. According to the Seattle Police report about the incident, categorized as a “strong-arm robbery,” it happened early Sunday morning, around 12:30 am. A Metro Route 21 bus driver saw it happen and called police on behalf of the victim, who said the would-be robber came up behind her as she was boarding the bus. He pulled her purse off her shoulder; she ran after him as he fled onto a trail into the park. According to the report, “the man didn’t run far before he threw the purse onto the ground and kept running southbound.” The victim got everything back, though her purse was ripped in the process, and her arm was scratched when the robber pulled it off her shoulder. Officers couldn’t find the robber, described by the victim as 18 or 19 years old, Filipino, “long black hair in the back,” 5-8, thin build, wearing a black vest, white T-shirt, and khaki pants.

21 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Victim chases robber, gets purse back"

  • LivesinWS August 25, 2014 (4:51 pm)

    Brava!

  • alki Resident August 25, 2014 (5:18 pm)

    Oh look, more craziness in the trail. But nothing will be done about it because the trees will never be knocked down and removed.

  • Andi August 25, 2014 (6:18 pm)

    I’m thankful the thief decided running was the better option, though I’m disappointed he wasn’t caught. Also thankful the victim wasn’t hurt and was kind of a bada$$!

  • Jim P August 25, 2014 (6:26 pm)

    Past time to put a security guard/cop/something at that stop late at night.

    Between the dark park and the long line of buses, almost anything could happen there and not be seen.

    I hate catching or arriving there as I am almost always panhandled and there’s often people hanging out there who definitely qualify as sketchy at best.

    I love the convenience of so many buses in one area but Metro kind of created the situation (along with park maintenance) and they need to help solve it.

  • wsn00b August 25, 2014 (6:46 pm)

    No disrespect meant to the tons of good folk that actually live around that area but…

    …we go out of our way to avoid Roxhill/Westwood Village. My wife used to go to QFC/Target earlier there but she’s had it with the general sketchiness and incidents she has witnessed. Shop online, goto the Junction (less sketchy).

    0030 hours at that bus-stop/area is something that I’d never contemplate doing (if I had a choice). Gutsy move/reaction by that lady. Glad it mostly worked out well for her.

  • ws guy August 25, 2014 (6:49 pm)

    Oustanding work….

  • Josh August 25, 2014 (7:24 pm)

    I am so tired of this. Before Metro moved this garbage here my family and I could walk to the shops at Westwood, or the park, and we just drive (and it’s only a couple blocks). Metro can’t figure out how to fix this, and we put up with it.

  • eric1 August 25, 2014 (11:43 pm)

    Ditto on the “tired of Metro” sentiment. I use Metro to get to work daily but I wouldn’t be sad if the “C line” and the 21 would disappear and civility returns to Roxhill park and Westwood village. I can find another way to get to work.
    .
    Metro is un-responsive to find solutions to even the most basic problems it has caused. Lighting, emphasis patrols, the bus wall, road damage, and not to mention providing cheap transportation for “sketchy” people.
    .
    Metro claims poverty and that any local inconvenience is outweighed by the greater community good (as long as it is you and not me). It is too bad none of the metro fat cats live in Westwood. Soon Metro will stop the 120 at Westwood since Seattle will probably fund city only Metro. To save money, Metro will make Seattle pay for the 120 and then “invent” a loop to finish out its normal route. Get ready for a another bus wall and increased levels of crime.

  • Eric August 26, 2014 (5:30 am)

    Since I live close by to this area and drive by it all the time, I’m pretty sure I have seen a guy fitting this description hanging around this area for a while now.

    Maybe the cops should be looking in the apartments behind Roxhill park. I would not be surprised if the guy was local. That local. And I know from experience that there are some POS living there.

    This area has been a problem for some time now and it’s getting really tiring. Westwood Village itself is actually a nice place. Much nicer than it used to be. It’s the undesirable POS people that come there just to start trouble and/or commit crimes with their POS mentality that ruin it.

  • Josh August 26, 2014 (8:10 am)

    I agree with one of the comments. We used to buy a ton from Barnes & Noble to support them/keep them from leaving, but it’s cheaper to buy the same stuff online. WAY too much garbage around Westwood. We used to walk to Roxhill, now we DRIVE to Lincoln or the water tower park. The place (my neighborhood) has turned into a dumping ground.

  • Bradley August 26, 2014 (10:24 am)

    Perhaps the robber couldn’t run fast with his pants sagging around his knees so he dropped the purse? Those of us who live around Roxhill Park and Westwood Village are sick and tired of our bad new neighbor, Metro. However, the Westwood Village management HAS taken some pretty good steps in combating the thuggery on their property by hiring better security and tolerating less loitering/panhandling.

  • McGruff August 26, 2014 (12:18 pm)

    I’m reluctant to blame Metro; the buses and employees aren’t the problem. It’s the combination of the proximity of a poorly supervised public space (Roxhill park) to a major transit hub (the buses provide both cover and transport to the gangbangers, druggies, and weirdos), combined with the public’s ‘laissez-faire’ attitude to vagrants (we refuse to enforce laws already on the books regarding loitering, camping in public spaces, etc,. for fear of being accused of ‘racial profiling’, or prosecuting a ‘war on the poor’). If Metro insists on using this site as a transit hub, then I’m afraid they’ll have to spring for better security. Similarly, the City of Seattle needs to aggressively take back Roxhill park via repeated police sweeps and clearing out the undergrowth.

  • JTB August 26, 2014 (12:47 pm)

    In line with McGruff’s observations and the recent funding of a Seattle City Park District, perhaps a steady stream of citizen complaints to the City-mayor, council members, parks officials about unsafe conditions and chronically inadequate security at Roxhill Park is in order. Perhaps this represents an opportunity for the City to demonstrate an obvious benefit from this vote.

  • G August 26, 2014 (12:51 pm)

    McGruff,

    I never really realize how laissez-faire it is here until I moved somewhere else. Good lord, it’s stunning. I know it’s part of the NW solitary nature, and good things about that, but with the city growing tremendously, we can’t afford that luxury anymore. The police are still patrolling like it’s 1970.

  • Bradley August 26, 2014 (2:23 pm)

    I don’t see how tearing out trees in Roxhill Park is going to solve any crime issues when the SPD lets criminals gather there, anyway. Roxhill and especially Arbor Heights have one of the fastest rates of tree canopy loss in the entire city. Cutting down trees in the park will just give the violent thugs more room to operate and more time to see victims coming their way.

  • McGruff August 26, 2014 (3:10 pm)

    Bradley, I don’t want to take out the trees either; I do suggest removal of some of the shrubs and undergrowth to deny thugs and vagrants cover.

  • Bradley August 26, 2014 (4:10 pm)

    @McGruff: Roxhill Park is one of the first things I see when I leave my house. Frankly, I’d rather deal with the thugs and vagrants than chain saws and tree shredders. The thugs and vagrants will be there, trees and shrubs or not, as long as the City is coddling them.

  • Eric1 August 26, 2014 (7:25 pm)

    Agree with the coddle the trees and not the thugs. I always feel like I am a Tea Party guy in Seattle. I am liberal (socially) as you can get but I think criminals should serve their time. It isn’t like any of these criminals are first time offenders. They have been taught that you can commit crimes with little punishment. At the very least, the longer they are in jail, the less crime they can commit.
    .
    The accumulation of sketchy people may not be directly Metro’s fault but they enable these miscreants to move about the city and “gather” in one place. It is much like the guy who provides the drug house but not the drugs. I get more mad at him than the drug dealer since without the drug house, the druggies just get high on their own and individually pass out in a bush. At the drug house, the druggies gather and the idiots get “bright ideas” from each other and commit more crimes in a smaller area.

  • joel August 26, 2014 (9:46 pm)

    tough to blame the cops when they arrest them and the courts let em back on the streets in hours. cops must be tired of arresting the same people over and over just to see them back on the streets committing more crimes.

  • Sally side punch August 27, 2014 (7:50 am)

    I wish she caught him and kicked his butt. Tired of these punks. I hope they pick me one day.

  • Jeff August 28, 2014 (8:27 am)

    METRO SUCKS-
    they do what they want.
    WHen they want.
    How they want.
    They have clogged our streets with stupid bus stops that choke traffic. THey can not budget money for nothing.
    They ask for more money all the time. They buy expensive buses and build expensive shiny bus stops. Then they actually CLOSE down bus routes.
    Piss off Metro !!!! Because we are pissed.

Sorry, comment time is over.