Reader reports: Hit & run; plant thefts; door-to-door concern

| Crime | Door-to-door alert | West Seattle news

Three reader reports to share tonight:

HIT & RUN: Tim says this was one lousy parting gift to get while preparing to move – damage done by a hit-and-run driver near 42nd and Manning (map). It’s been reported to police. Tim says a neighbor believes the car was a Subaru Forester – checking to see if they also mentioned its color.

PLANT THEFTS: The latest case of illegal grab-and-go from a garden:

1:30 am this morning, 2 white women were stealing plants from my driveway where I have
plant sales, when my neighbor came home. They already had the 2-3 Japanese Maples in their car (2 Ukigumo, 1 red Pygmy). They had taken two hostas in 3 gallon containers and placed at the front of the driveway – then they were discovered by my neighbor. They promptly left in their Toyota Sienna, around year 2000, color light gold/silver, partial license (starting with) 522 … My Neighbor was chasing after them on foot. This is a dead end block – one way in and out. 7300 block 19th Avenue SW.

DOOR-TO-DOOR CONCERN: Our final reader report:

I live in the 8500 block of 14th Ave. SW in Highland Park. A little before 4:00 p.m. two young men knocked on my door. The windows were open and the TV was on, but it took me a few seconds from the time I first heard knocking to get to the window and stick my head outside to see who was at the door. In the meantime, it sounded like someone wriggled the door handle and tried to get in. When I stuck my head out the window, they said they were from Century Link and they wanted to talk to neighbors about construction that is going on. We are having wires enhanced in the area. I said I wasn’t interested.

I called Century Link and it was confirmed that none of their representatives are going to houses in the area. They only send out technicians. The young men looked to be in their early 20’s. One was brunet Caucasian with slender build and the other was tall, stocky African American. They wore white shirts and black pants and carried clipboards.

There’s always the chance the person the reader spoke with at CL didn’t have good local info – so if you happen to know these visitors were legit, please advise, does happen sometimes.

coffee June 30, 2015 (7:01 am)

CenturyLink actually does have people working the West Seattle area. They are easily identified, as they are in shirts with the logo embroidered, and they carry or wear ID tags. They are doing soft selling of services, that they have partnered with Dish Network. They came through my area (South of Roxbury Safeway) about 2 weeks ago. The 2 guys that stopped at my house were not hard sell, and very pleasant. Most likely when you called CL, you got routed to one of their many call centers (several are in the southern states, home to CL) and they have no clue.

ChefJoe June 30, 2015 (9:06 am)

A month ago, there was a single CenturyLink rep who came to my door (with a clipboard and a cell phone). They’re contracted, I believe, as they actually call in with you present to make service orders.
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The guy somehow put a lot of incorrect info on the paper order form and, a week later, the CenturyLink authorized partner (Gaiya-te? Inc) was leaving voicemails related to my order (I presume because they eventually noticed that order had been cancelled by having an invalid address and they weren’t getting the commission because we re-submitted the order with CenturyLink HQ directly).

RT June 30, 2015 (9:08 am)

In this case I think the homeowner did the prudent, and safe, thing. Not at all clear the two individuals at her door were legitimate CL reps. When wiring was occurring down our alley, no one canvassed our block re: the construction. Much better to err on the side of caution.

miws June 30, 2015 (9:10 am)

I had a Comcast/Xfinity rep come by nearly two weeks ago, and as with coffee’s encounter with CL, the guy was pleasant, and soft sell.

I ended up getting a year of HBO/Starz, and Xfinity Voice (which I don’t intend to use, as I have been more than happy with GoPhone prepay, for my very little phone/text usage), for what I had been paying for awhile.

I believe this is the same, or at least a similar offer, that Xfinity has been sending in the USPS Mail about every month or so for awhile, which I have just discarded, as I didn’t want to lock into a two-year contract, that knowing how life goes, I may not have been able to keep. He signed me up as “No Contract”.

Plus, he gave me two Xfinity logo’d Nerf-like foam. palm sized footballs. He gave me the one, and I excitedly told him how much I appreciated the (in the scheme of things) small gesture, as I get occasional hand cramps. So he gave me another! :-)

Yeah, but anyway, very nice experience in dealing with him.

Mike

ChefJoe June 30, 2015 (10:04 am)

RT, they did the canvassing several months after they strung the lines (lower lines with fresh red plastic markers) here in Seaview and weren’t carrying any stacks of pamphlets (if you happened to not be there at the time).
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I don’t think anyone here could tell that person if it was a legitimate sales call or something more questionable, and certainly don’t want to dismiss their concerns, but we can add some background to suggest there is a currently active door-to-door sales force in the area.

norskgirl June 30, 2015 (2:29 pm)

I want to share a recent experience during Century Link activity in our neighborhood:
Century Link was installing fiber optic lines in the Genesee neighborhood a a couple months or ago. A Century Link “representative” went throughout the block knocking on doors to announce their work and possibility of requiring property access. These representatives wore bright vests and sometimes hard hats, but no obvious Century Link identification. They came into the neighborhood on large work trucks, although without a logo Century Link (they were subcontractors). They worked Sun-Sat often into the evenings, and often were in backyards and alleys. Out of prudence, we monitored their activity while they were on our property.
There was one occasion of suspicious behavior. At some point during the project, again came a man to several houses on the block. He was dressed like all the other workmen (no ID). There was no work truck to be seen. He announced himself to be from Verizon. He said he required access to the backyards. We declined to unlock gates and almost immediately seemed to disappear. After his visit, we found our gate locks had been tampered with. We reported this to non-emergency police phone number.

Justin June 30, 2015 (4:11 pm)

Regarding the plant thefts, we had a similar issue late last year on 59th Ave SW with 80+ plants disappearing at newly constructed homes. Always taken in the middle of the night, culprits raided the properties a total of 5 times, and a suspicious gold/silver minivan was seen peeling off, quite possibly the same Toyota Sienna.

Keep an eye out for these folks, and take pictures of the van if you suspect anything missing! It’d be great to close the loop on these plant grabbers. We suspect they work in the landscaping industry or sell the plants to someone who does, because they took 40+ examples of the same species.

Franci June 30, 2015 (4:17 pm)

I would certainly hope that any legitimate door-2-door sales folks would NOT be trying door handles to see if they are locked. Just from that alone I would say these 2 were casing and not canvasing.

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