West Seattle Crime Watch: 3 reader reports, Alki to Westwood

Attempted car theft, mail theft, burglary, all in this roundup of West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports, ahead:

TOUGH MONTH FOR ONE BLOCK IN WESTWOOD: From Rachel, who lives on the same block where a home-invasion robbery happened last week:

Just wanted to let you know my car was broken into and they attempted to steal it. Luckily they didn’t steal it and I never have anything of value in the car. I usually lock it, but may have forgotten to. There was no sign of forced entry. The police came out and took an old CD case that he thought may have a fingerprint. The thief also left behind a “tool” that the police are hoping may have fingerprints. Unfortunately they pulled apart the steering column and now the car won’t start.

We also had our locked mailbox broken into, and there were other opened mailboxes down the street. Again, there was nothing in there, but now we need to try and get a mailbox that is more secure than just the regular lock.

Someone else on her block, she says, was hit by an attempted burglary the same day as the home invasion – and didn’t figure it out until a repair crew showed up to help fix her home security system.

NOT FAR AWAY: We also have heard separately from a resident a few blocks south who has found stolen mail in her apartment building. First time she found mail “opened and tossed in the hallway,” she called police who came to retrieve it; second time, she says, she was referred to the post office and the apartments’ manager. Today, she’s made a third find, she says, and credit cards had been removed from the mail; she contacted the card companies, who pointed her to the police, who again referred her to the post office and building manager. (She says there are problem tenants who are possible suspects.) She says they’ve saved the names of the people whose mail they found – so be sure, if you’re missing mail, to follow up with USPS.

ALKI BURGLARY: A burglary victim on Alki wants to alert area residents to the getaway car that was seen leaving the scene of the break-in – a 4-door maroon Mazda 929, Washington plates beginning with ATZ, “most likely ’90s,” with at least four occupants, one of whom was car-surfing – white, male, 17-20 years old, long black hair. He and the two other males and one female had tried to kick in the back door of his house until a neighbor scared them away.

6 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: 3 reader reports, Alki to Westwood"

  • alki resident April 14, 2015 (8:39 pm)

    Rachel- My truck was broken into a year ago. They left tools behind which police came and bagged up. Later to find the police informing me they don’t fingerprint tools, because the tools may have been stolen and other prints may be on them. Sigh

    • WSB April 14, 2015 (8:45 pm)

      AR, the Southwest Precinct has made a dramatic change in fingerprinting in recent months, as we reported several times. They had outdated equipment, and too little of it, we learned from former precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske, and they purchased new kits and have been fingerprinting far more scenes and items. That’s leading to more suspect identification – note our recent report about the jewelry-store burglary in which the suspect was found via a print match. – TR

  • sophista-tiki April 15, 2015 (9:30 am)

    I’m in Westwood, just a couple blocks south of last weeks invasion incident. The day after that happened I came home from work pulled into the driveway and immediately got into a confrontation with a a guy I think was going down our block either checking mail boxes or casing houses. I didn’t see him when I pulled into my driveway which tells me he was hiding behind the lilac tree in my neighbors yard. My dog and I got out of the truck and he starts yelling at me.” thats a big dog he better not bite me, I’d hate to have to sue you, hope hes trained”. To which I replied ” trained to do what? You move along and mind your own business and so will the dog”. Both the dog and myself were on my property not in the street. and he continues to argue with me about my front yard being public property. I called him a dumbass and told him its not the dog he needs to be afraid of. He walked north towards Trenton and continued to look like he was checking out possible scores. So yea, theres are some sketchy peoples casing Westwood right now. We also found a needle right in front of the mailbox yesterday.

  • HelperMonkey April 15, 2015 (10:18 am)

    I had some sketchy kid ring my doorbell last night at around 9pm. When I asked through the door “who is it” he looked confused and mumbled something while looking at his phone. He looked drunk and confused and potentially lost, but with all the home invasion crap going on I told him to either ID himself or move along or I’d call the cops. Skinny white kid, shaggy blonde hair, hat, large cell phone (not an iphone) Arbor Heights area

  • me April 15, 2015 (11:01 am)

    I was the one that reported finding 4 separate incidents of stolen mail in our building. We live in the small apartment complex @ 25th SW/SW Cloverdale so, directly across the street from the block of the home invasion, car broken in to and the locked mailbox being broken in to. There are meth users in our building and have committed crimes within our bldg as well. They broke our locked outgoing mailbox and our locked in boxes as well. There are several people coming and going in this particular unit, all users. The community should be concerned about these individuals. They don’t work, aren’t on housing and apparently stealing identities and financial information to “make a living”. They have prior forgery charges, assault/d.v. and property destruction charges and as they get closer to their eviction court date, their behaviours seem to be escalating.

  • Eric April 15, 2015 (12:28 pm)

    That sucks to have meth users living in the same apartment complex as these POS don’t care about any but themselves and their fix. It sucks that people become victims of crime because people like this decide to make stupid decisions and mess up their lives, which in turn can and often does mess up other people’s lives, because of the person(s) own selfishness.

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