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West Seattle Crime Watch: Gatewood burglary; Admiral car prowl

October 11, 2015 7:53 pm
|      22 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports:

GATEWOOD BURGLARY: For at least the third time this weekend, there was a burglary on California SW. We reported Saturday on two business break-ins, in The Junction and South Admiral; today, burglars hit in Gatewood, in the 8200 block of California SW. A neighbor reports seeing the burglars break in and carry out “duffel bags and TVs” while the victims were away on an errand; the neighbor called 911, but the burglars were gone before police arrived. The neighbor called 911 at 11 am; she says police arrived after the burglars left at 11:14. (We happened to see the first car pull up, as this is a couple blocks away from WSB HQ and we were passing by.) The neighbor says the 911 operator mentioned “shift change” as a complication; we don’t know what else was happening in the sector at the time, as we were away from the scanner, but we’ll be following up with SPD tomorrow.

CAR PROWL: Karen e-mailed today to say that “our car was broken into Friday night. It was in front of our house on Hanford St SW, near 36th Ave. They smashed the passenger side window but we didn’t have anything worth taking, luckily.”

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22 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Gatewood burglary; Admiral car prowl"

  • KT October 11, 2015 (8:15 pm)

    “The neighbor says the 911 operator mentioned “shift change” as a complication”. Seems it’s always shift change.

  • WS is getting old October 11, 2015 (8:24 pm)

    Agreed KT. Wouldn’t surprise me if the bad guys know when shift changes are and time their crimes accordingly.
    Edit – Sgt Brian Johnson once told me they have an 8 or 9 am shift change for traffic and it affects being able to be out on the bridge hot spots.

  • Eric1 October 11, 2015 (9:44 pm)

    The sad thing is that nobody ever gets reimbursed fully for the damage reported in this article. Between the deductible and your time, each incident costs hundreds of dollars. Criminals like Emanuel Kozma (mentioned earlier this week) with 3+ pages of arrests and convictions continue to plague our city. “Time served” is often all we get. Just think of the thousands of dollars he has cost the community.
    .
    These clowns need to pay people back for the crimes they do. Chain gangs at $15 per hour would suit me fine. After they pay $100 for room, board, and guards, the $20 “profit” after a day of work could be applied to their bill. It might make them think about how much a car window really costs.

  • Azimuth October 11, 2015 (10:42 pm)

    Eric1, those costs to us individually you point out in addition to court, lawyers, police, 911, jail, insurance, and so on. You make me wonder what it truly costs the public on average to commit a crime. There are supposedly avenues for restitution to the government and the individual, but guess who is last in line and how often the offender actually pays.

  • S October 11, 2015 (10:46 pm)

    Shift change? That’s a pathetic excuse.

  • East Coast Cynic October 12, 2015 (5:30 am)

    If a license plate number of the car or van used for the getaway was obtained, wouldn’t that be a good start even if the police didn’t get there on time?

    Or did they actually get away on foot with those items?

  • BEB October 12, 2015 (7:07 am)

    Our car was prowled last Wednesday night (10/7). Apparently my husband had left it unlocked, so the car was not damaged. All compartments were open and the prowler had taken a bag of hardware items that had been left in the car. We live in east Admiral (34th & Hinds).

  • S October 12, 2015 (8:37 am)

    Gatewood robbery: There are pictures of the car, car’s license plate, and the guy loading stuff into the car. Will the police investigate?

  • nachobeaver October 12, 2015 (9:12 am)

    please post the pics so we can keep this from reoccurring and keep an eye out for these crooks in other neighborhoods its the only thing we got since the police wont do anything!!

  • Neighbor October 12, 2015 (9:14 am)

    As far as the license plate goes, that was provided as well. They encountered each other up the street but the police were not given permission to pursue him and they got away.

  • WS is getting old October 12, 2015 (9:30 am)

    Another thing, often times, SPD refers victims to their insurance companies for stolen iphones, prowled or stolen cars .. I wonder if insurance companies know this is the solution SPD provides?
    .
    The more claims people submit to insurance companies, the higher all of the payer rates are going to be…

  • KT October 12, 2015 (4:25 pm)

    As far as the license plate goes, that was provided as well. They encountered each other up the street but the police were not given permission to pursue him and they got away.” Huh? SPD saw the burglars leaving the scene but did not pursue?

    • WSB October 12, 2015 (4:35 pm)

      I am writing our followup right now. As I suspected, it was a case of the fact that SPD does not do high-speed pursuits. The potential suspect vehicle (high likelihood) – spotted not leaving the scene, but rather elsewhere (reportedly 35th) – wouldn’t stop, and they had to terminate the pursuit because of public safety. That’s SPD’s longstanding policy. Some agencies have different policies – KCSO, for example. – TR

  • bolo October 12, 2015 (4:35 pm)

    Wow look at this– Neighbor’s comment from two above this one:
    “As far as the license plate goes, that was provided as well. They encountered each other up the street but the police were not given permission to pursue him and they got away.”

    So that means the cops let the burglars get away?

    Wow!

    Wonder what the reasoning behind that was?

    I’m in the wrong business!

    • WSB October 12, 2015 (4:37 pm)

      Please see my reply written while you were commenting.

  • bolo October 12, 2015 (4:38 pm)

    OK, WSB, just saw your posting, now I don’t know what to think. It’s those high-speed chases where it ends up in a horrible accident and people hurt, etc. that we want to avoid. But they let them get away?

    • WSB October 12, 2015 (4:44 pm)

      When somebody is spotted but can’t be pursued (AGAIN, for the most recent commenter, because SPD has a no-high-speed-pursuit policy), the information typically goes out over the air, and if they’re spotted by other police down the line, they might yet be caught. In a recent case, for example, a car taking off from Don Armeni was described by a parking-enforcement officer who happened to be there – late at night, NOT middle of the day as this was – and it was handed on down the line, and police happened to spot them on the bridge, then in the Rainier Valley, etc. I wish I had been listening to the scanner when all this unfolded but unfortunately we took a one-hour break and went to the Farmers’ Market (where the burglary victims apparently had gone too, according to the witness) before what was already promising to be a busy afternoon. – TR

  • Eric October 12, 2015 (4:41 pm)

    What the hell does that mean that they encountered each other up the street, but the police weren’t allowed to pursue? I hope to God that’s not true. It send pics of the car, the perp, and the license plate was given. What more do the police need to pursue this?

  • Eric October 12, 2015 (4:47 pm)

    BTW, a shift change is a pathetic excuse. Jobs of this nature should have overlapping shifts

  • Gary October 13, 2015 (10:34 am)

    It would be very helpful to have the vehicle type/year that the plate is registered to so we can be on the lookout for it.
    Is that something that can be done?

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