West Seattle Crime Watch: Update – robbery suspect in custody; plus – bizarre backyard burglary

(Robbery report updated 4:40 pm with suspect being taken into custody)

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports this afternoon:

(Photo from Scott)

SEARCHING FOR A ROBBER – UPDATE – SUSPECT IN CUSTODY: (Original report, 2:16 pm) Thanks to the tipsters who texted about a police search that’s continuing right now in the California and Spokane area. SPD media relations confirms they’re looking for someone in connection with a street robbery. They don’t have details yet on the exact circumstances of the robbery, not even whether a weapon was involved, but we do have this description of the robber: White man, mid-20s, scruffy beard, black hat with white “insignia,” gray T-shirt, dark zip-up vest, dark pants, dark shoes. If you have any information, please call 911. We’ll update this with anything more we find out – we have a crew on the way to try to get more information. (2:56 pm – No other details so far.) …

3:55 PM UPDATE: A suspect has been located and is in custody – more details to come.

4:40 PM UPDATE: Just back from the arrest scene – the West Seattle PCC (WSB sponsor). The suspect was being cuffed in the parking lot as we arrived:

(WSB photo by Tracy Record)

What we’d heard on the scanner preceding this – A photo of the suspect, apparently from a surveillance camera, had been circulated. One officer spotted him in the PCC/WSHS vicinity. He went into the store. Police converged. They found him in a bathroom. We’re still working to find out more details of the original incident itself, and will also be checking on the suspect’s status.

(back to original report) Meantime, the robbery call came in just as we had finished writing a separate Crime Watch report about a burglary early today – so read on for that:

BACKYARD BURGLARY: A local resident is still wondering, why did someone steal HER patio furniture, in the middle of the night?

Just reporting a burglary of patio furniture. I received my new furniture last week and had it mostly assembled. The delivery guy dropped it off on my back patio so no one saw it being delivered. I live on 41st and Fauntleroy. I haven’t had any people over or posted pictures of my furniture so it’s no one I know. My neighbor saw a couple of guys in a silver truck with a canopy loading my patio furniture into their truck. He was half asleep so didn’t think about it. It happened around 2 am. They stole a few other things from the yard, and cut my garden hose up and removed the latch from my gate. Also they tore off my hot tub cover. Overall about $1,400 in damage. Weird because I’ve lived there for 6 years and never had a problem.

We followed up with the victim to ask if there was something distinctive about her furniture; no, she said, just basic wicker patio furniture with big cushions.

23 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Update - robbery suspect in custody; plus - bizarre backyard burglary"

  • justme August 11, 2015 (2:31 pm)

    Crazy, this was going on in my alley directly behind my house as I pulled up from grocery shopping. Cops on foot looking in backyards. Nothing yet as far as I know. Thanks for the description.

  • Mike August 11, 2015 (2:45 pm)

    What’s the status of Hiawatha needing to go into lockdown, is that only if there’s a weapon in a suspect search near by? Thank you for posting this on the blog.

    • WSB August 11, 2015 (2:53 pm)

      No reports of that but if you have someone there you certainly could try calling them directly. My crew hasn’t been able to find out anything more in the field and has to move on to something else.

  • ACG August 11, 2015 (3:18 pm)

    How do you observe somebody loading your neighbors furniture into a truck at 2:00 in the morning and not think something wierd was going on??????

  • anonyme August 11, 2015 (3:26 pm)

    Sounds exactly like a guy who’s been hanging around Roxhill Park lately. He gave off a vibe I was careful to avoid.

  • nemobeansmom August 11, 2015 (4:20 pm)

    ACG>>> my thoughts exactly as yours! You’d think if you woke up enough to look out the window wouldn’t you think 2am…mmm..maybe call the police or make a noise, turn on lights so maybe they’d run off???

  • Lola August 11, 2015 (4:20 pm)

    For the lady who had the patio furniture stolen, I use carbiner clips on my gates so nobody can come in from the outside. It is weird how someone knew you got new furniture but they must have been watching with-out you knowing.

  • anon August 11, 2015 (4:25 pm)

    Suspect was arrested at PCC.

    • WSB August 11, 2015 (4:46 pm)

      Yes, anon, we know – see update above – thanks. Name – sorry, I don’t have more details but am going to try one more time. Couldn’t talk to police at the arrest scene as they were very busy taking the suspect into custody.

  • Seolajo August 11, 2015 (4:36 pm)

    He also matches the description of a guy that made his way down to Seola beach on foot last week. It’s a dead end with no public access. So he was either trying to escape being seen up in Arbor Heights or Roxbury area or casing our houses. He climbed through a lot of over growth to get down to the beach in the empty lot next to our house. By the time I alerted all of our neighbors he was all the way to Fauntleroy on the beach.

  • name August 11, 2015 (4:37 pm)

    What? What is a “street robbery”? I live one block from there, was someone robbed in the street or what? Thanks for any additional info!

  • Silly Goose August 11, 2015 (4:40 pm)

    So odd to come home and read this, as we were just sitting in traffice on I-90 waiting to get onto I-5 looking at this guy who lives in the jingle with a beautiful oak rocking glider with nice cushions!! The conversation was how did this guy get a chair like that up into the woods!! Maybe this thief sells to the homeless!!

  • Ellas August 11, 2015 (5:01 pm)

    Could the delivery guys for the furniture return to steal it? Hope your neighbor pays more attention if he is up at 2:00am. So sorry for your loss.

    • WSB August 11, 2015 (5:07 pm)

      Guys, unless 2 am is your usual haunting hour, it’s a tough time in which to think clearly. At least the neighbor got a partial description. I’m up at 2 am most nights, have worked night shifts much of my career, and even at that it’s a challenge to think on all cylinders.

  • Meg August 11, 2015 (5:06 pm)

    Wasn’t there also some kind of burglary this weekend in Admiral? Wtf is going on?

  • Ellie August 11, 2015 (5:38 pm)

    I’m the girl who had our furniture stolen. Thank you for the advice on the gate clips. I have no idea how they knew. But the funny thing is there’s about 12 cop cars at the tavern by Home Depot with two guys in custody and they have a tan truck with canopy brackets on the back. I’m waiting for a cop to come over to survey my yard and will see if it’s related to those two guys.

  • Stephanie August 11, 2015 (6:22 pm)

    Nice they have a suspect in hand. We work in the building where he was spotted hanging out (2pm). A person waiting for her appointment actually ran across him (not knowing he was the suspect). He hightailed it out of the foyer/building after she commented on the large police response that was happening outside. Big kudos to the police for the quick response and for capturing the suspect. Hope it’s the guy.

  • Lola August 11, 2015 (9:35 pm)

    Ellie, if you are on FB I did see some wicker patio furniture posted on, West Seattle Buy Sell Trade. It is dark brown with wide off white cushions.

  • AnnoyingNerd August 11, 2015 (10:11 pm)

    “Weird because I’ve lived there for 6 years and never had a problem.” suggests that burglaries ought to be more frequent or recurrent. Burglaries are not common. There were 7102 in Seattle in 2014 for 283,510 households, a rate of 2.5%. So any individual would be unlikely to be burglarized even once in six years. So not weird. Random, unlucky and a bummer but not weird.

  • Ellie August 12, 2015 (8:24 am)

    Lola- thanks that’s probably my stuff. What’s the exact name of the FB group? There are a few similar. I asked to join the one with the most members. Thanks for the tip. I really appreciate it! Can’t believe I have to get locks for my gates now!

  • Westie August 12, 2015 (8:35 am)

    Hey AnnoyingNerd, theft from a yard is not considered burglary, so your “stats” are not relevant. This is considered theft and there are much higher numbers for theft in Seattle

  • hmm August 12, 2015 (11:03 am)

    Not an accusation, just an observation…but a number of people involved in the sale and delivery of your patio furniture probably knew exactly where to find it.

    • WSB August 12, 2015 (2:17 pm)

      One update on the robbery – it *was* a business robbery after all, we finally have confirmed – more specifically, a shoplift turned robbery at the Charlestown 7-11, with the shoplifter becoming a robber when he pulled out a knife to facilitate his getaway (added – that happened as the clerk was following him outside, so that’s why it LOOKED like a street robbery when we first asked SPD public affairs). We’ll have a separate followup later after the suspect’s bail hearing, and we are still awaiting more info on last night’s mini-mart robbery a short distance south …

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