West Seattle Crime Watch: Police, helicopter search for possible trespasser(s) at Broadstone Sky construction site

(Added: Photos by WSB’s Christopher Boffoli)
10:54 PM: Don’t know yet what they’re looking for, but police are searching the Broadstone Sky construction site at 40th/Edmunds right now – thanks to the people who texted us that tip. And we’re mentioning it because you are likely to see/hear the Guardian One helicopter in the area shortly if you’re not already – they happened to be up and available, so they offered to help. If/when we find out more, we’ll update.

11:42 PM UPDATE: WSB’s Christopher Boffoli went over to see what more he could find out. Police told him they started searching the site after neighbors called to say they were hearing noises – they were still looking when he left. Guardian One didn’t spot anyone but the police officers at the site.

22 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Police, helicopter search for possible trespasser(s) at Broadstone Sky construction site"

  • JEA June 5, 2015 (10:57 pm)

    Not much happening ( I’m across the street). They sent dogs in about 30 minutes ago, but nothing so far.

  • Jenava June 5, 2015 (10:58 pm)

    Very loud. Hopefully they don’t wake my baby up! Thanks for the great reporting WSB!

  • Brianna Thomas June 5, 2015 (10:58 pm)

    Thanks so much. Was just looking out the window wondering….

  • Kristina June 5, 2015 (11:00 pm)

    The helicopter sounds like it’s right over my house (near the nursery); it’s very unsettling. I hope they catch whoever needs catching.

    • WSB June 5, 2015 (11:07 pm)

      Helicopter hasn’t seen anything but the police who are searching the building. We’re working to try to find out the original reason for the search – had been out for a few hours covering some of the night’s waterfront events and missed the original call just before arriving back at HQ.

  • JEA June 5, 2015 (11:05 pm)

    Guardian One just left. Was very loud! Nothing so far to report.

  • ws_suzanne June 5, 2015 (11:06 pm)

    Heard Guardian One for several minutes but now don’t. Maybe they found the guy? Sounded like they focused their search near SW Alaska and then down the hill. I’m just a few blocks away.

  • Lp June 5, 2015 (11:12 pm)

    I live in the condos behind the new construcrion. I don’t yet know what the complaint was about directly but if a noise was called in it could have been the condo on the corner of 41st and edmunds. The tenants in the bottom unit are very intoxicated and have been loud all night long.

  • West Seattle-ite June 5, 2015 (11:14 pm)

    There was an alarm that sounded about 10-15 minutes before the police arrive. It may have been a motion alarm that was tripped and made an automated call to SPD.

    (I live behind the building under construction)

  • Alice June 5, 2015 (11:16 pm)

    Thanks for keeping us in the loop, WSB!

    • WSB June 5, 2015 (11:21 pm)

      Christopher was going over to see if he could find out some specifics. We’ll add whatever else we find out. Sometimes G-1 also tweets something quick about what it was doing in a particular area, after it leaves … nothing yet.

  • Charlie June 6, 2015 (12:05 am)

    Helicopter near Westwood now. Or was. Still hear it in the distance.

    • WSB June 6, 2015 (12:10 am)

      Police are checking a report of possible gunfire at 17th/Henderson but I didn’t hear Guardian One getting involved in that one – easy to miss things on the scanner, though, if one channel overlaps the other …

  • Tim June 6, 2015 (12:14 am)

    tax dollars

  • Vincent Dakotah Langley June 6, 2015 (1:39 am)

    Maybe it was some of the urban raccoons around this neighborhood (the vicinity of 40th Avenue, S.W. and S.W. Edmunds Street), foraging for food items to eat. They do so at night and in the very wee hours of very early morning. They, too, can be sometimes really quite loud in different things that they do! Dogs will oftentimes back off from them, too, because they (raccoons) can be very wild and mean — and, they band together in groups to fight, protecting one-another. To this, dogs are usually like, “I’m outa here!!!”.

  • Function Junction June 6, 2015 (6:50 am)

    I have huge admiration for the police and am glad they get support when they need it from Guardian One. Lately, I do feel like the helicopter is coming out for a few
    minor calls, which is scary for residents and probably expensive at the same time for the city.

    • WSB June 6, 2015 (7:02 am)

      Guardian One is the only law-enforcement aerial unit in the area and is a county operation, but assists various jurisdictions, including Seattle and other cities. What preceded this was the crew announcing on the air that they were in service and available and that they had heard this call and could they help? SPD said, sure, come take a look. When we covered a deputy from this unit presenting to the West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network earlier this year, this explanation was part of the presentation (our report includes video – https://westseattleblog.com/2015/04/video-guardian-one-helicopter-pilottactical-flight-officer-west-seattle-block-watch-captains-network ).

  • flimflam June 6, 2015 (8:03 am)

    wow, a bit of overkill for a possible trespass imo…I thought anything short of an assault or physical threat was essentially low grade on the priority list?

  • WestSeattleGirl June 6, 2015 (9:53 am)

    And yet the response to us calling in a person at the Charleston Cafe construction site the first night of construction, pulling out things from the wall at 10:30 PM, was a lone car that came, flashed a flashlight around for a minute, and then left. And we never heard anything about it afterward here or elsewhere. Strange that one place gets a huge helicopter response for “noises” and we actually saw someone inside the remains of the Charleston cafe, yanking stuff out of the walls in the middle of the night, and no big deal.

    • WSB June 6, 2015 (10:07 am)

      WSG, responses vary depending on what else is going on (I say that because of the endless scanner listening and hearing how officers have to divert when something higher priority comes up – they’re on their way to X and then suddenly have to go to Y instead, or they’re at X and they have to leave quickly and head to Y).
      .
      Regarding mentioning it here, I honestly would not usually mention a trespassing investigation except for the two factors here that put it on the site:
      .
      1. Multiple readers texted/tweeted/otherwise messaged us – even before the helicopter showed up.
      .
      2. The helicopter showed up (and as I mentioned, that was NOT because SPD called for it, but it happened to be in the area, happened to hear the call, and offered help. Some nights it’s not up at all and even when there’s a violent crime, there’s no helicopter support because it’s not available). This was one of the few instances in which I heard about it ahead of time and so I put something up to head off the texts (which we appreciate, don’t get me wrong, most of the time that’s how we hear about something happening). The only thing I heard about the CC site trespassing was the mention in a comment here afterward. Even when we are listening to the scanner, we don’t hear everything – a dispatch might just be a few words, or it might be an instruction to officers to check the computer terminals in their car for details of where they’re needed to go.
      .
      I wish there was some way these factors could be communicated to people because context always helps and without it, you are left thinking “what? were we just blown off?” If you do feel that’s the case, though, you can file a formal complaint: http://www.seattle.gov/opa/file-a-police-complaint

  • Evergreen June 6, 2015 (9:55 am)

    Jeez, let them do their job as they see fit.

  • Jenava June 6, 2015 (10:51 am)

    I also heard the alarm go off just before the police activity. I assumed that’s what triggered the police response. Bummer about the loud drunk neighbors!

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