West Seattle Crime Watch: School-zone hit-run; rash of car prowls; more window-shooting

(UPDATED 6 PM with added reader report of window shootings overnight)

ORIGINAL REPORT, 4:44 PM: In West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon – half a dozen reader reports:

HIT-RUN IN SCHOOL ZONE: Robin sent the photo of a vehicle found abandoned after what started as a hit-run and continued as a near-collision in the crosswalk outside the Louisa Boren STEM/Arbor Heights Elementary building at 5950 Delridge on Tuesday afternoon. Wendy tells the story of the near-collision:

The family that was almost struck in the crosswalk was me, my two kids, and a friend. We were crossing as directed by our crossing guard and I heard someone blaring their horn on Delridge (south of the crosswalk). It looked like two cars had rear-ended when out if no where a man can flying down the turn lane, narrowly missing us. The STEM crossing guard started yelling for us to watch out- and I’m grateful for her attentive eyes.

We checked with SPD; the full report on this isn’t available yet, but traffic investigators spent quite some time on it Tuesday; an SPD spokesperson tells us the car was found, unoccupied. If you have any information, contact SPD and refer to case #16000048247.

Next – it was a busy night for car prowlers:

THREE ON ONE BLOCK: From Jeff:

I just want to send an FYI of at least 3 car prowls on the 5300 block, between Andover and Dakota, between 10:00 pm [corrected] Feb. 9th and 7:00 am Feb. 10th. All three cars are parked in the street, about a house length apart. Prowler went in through the street side doors. No one said if anything of real value was gone. Pretty certain I locked my daughter’s car. Other neighbors thought they had locked theirs as well.

TRUCK BREAK-IN: From SH:

My work truck back passenger window was smashed out early this morning between 3 am and 5 am. Nothing stolen. Do not keep any thing of value in the truck. Might have scared them away when I got up. Location 5000 block of 49th Ave SW. Just want to get the word out.

CAR BREAK-IN: From Wil:

Last “night”, ie probably early this morning, 2/10, our gray Toyota Prius had its contents rifled through along the 4900 block of SW Bruce St. (Bruce St is a 2 block long road just south of Dawson, between 49th and 51st, FYI). So far, only my wife’s makeup bag is missing. It appeared another car along Bruce St but closer to 49th Ave had a window broken out when my wife drove past this morning.

ANOTHER ONE ON BRUCE ST.: From Erin:

Just wanted to share with the neighbors to be extra vigilant. My car near 49th & Bruce was broken into late night on 2/9 or early morning 2/10. The thief took a teal and black messenger bag containing important, irreplaceable work documents. In the unlikely event you heard something, or saw something or know anything about the incident, it would be greatly appreciated.

And a reminder about scammers:

SCAM CALL: From C:

Heavily accented caller says your Visa was charged $2000, and if not your charge, they will cancel card and send new one. Of course, they then want last four digits and expiration date “to confirm you are the card holder.” JUST HANG UP!

ADDED 6 PM: Just in from David:

Five cars on Sunset Avenue had their windows shot out with a BB gun last night between 3am and 4am. Property was stolen from several of them. Two males in a white four door sedan. Police responded and have a description.

This follows a string of window-shootings a week and a half ago in various West Seattle neighborhoods.

8 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: School-zone hit-run; rash of car prowls; more window-shooting"

  • Tracie February 10, 2016 (6:02 pm)

    Bruce Street has a history of car prowls/window breaks. The street is very dark with only a few house/porch lights on during the evening/early morning hours. It is also used by pedestrians so it is not uncommon to see people walking through.  It would be very helpful if more neighbors would turn on their outside lights as a deterrent and for safety.

  • Donna Dykstra February 11, 2016 (3:19 am)

    I am wondrong if I might have seen the car prowler yesterday morning. I was parked on 49th at Dawson and leaving for the gym at my usual 5:20 am. I had a large number of possessions with me so I stepped around to the parking strip to load them into the back seat and I glanced north and about midway down the block was a guy also in the parking strip. He appeared to be smoking.  I didn’t think too much about it as there are often runners and walkers at that early hour and the thought flashed into my mind that he was another neighbor approaching his vehicle to get into it due to heading out early for work.  If that was the thief, unfortunately he was too far away for me to give any sort of description, and at that time he was not touching or reaching into a vehicle  so It did not occur to me to call the police.

  • Carissa February 11, 2016 (7:26 am)

    Our condo garage on 44th and Oregon was broken into Friday night. Sometime between 9pm 2/5 and 4am 2/6. Our car was riffled through and our garage door opener was stolen. No signs of forced entry, we aren’t sure how they got in. This is the 2nd time in a month.

    • Panda February 11, 2016 (9:39 am)

      Recommend changing the code of your garage door opener. They will likely come back. 

  • Hoosier February 11, 2016 (1:36 pm)

    Our car window was also smashed at 49th & Dawson, same night. Nothing taken, but frustrating for sure.

  • Bill Bob February 11, 2016 (3:02 pm)

    I belong to the “more lights does not equal less crime” posse. Lighting gives people engaging in criminal activity places to hide. They can hide in the shadows created by lighting. Human’s relatively poor eyesight keeps us from quickly adjusting between the light and dark. Think about a campfire scenario. If you are sitting around it, you see the immediate lit area just fine. What is out there in the shadows, though? Scary things. Ha ha. Now think about when the fire goes out and your eyes adjust. You see much more beyond the radius of what you could see. Motion sensor lights are a different story. Some crooks may think that someone just heard something and turned the light on. Some see the sensor and laugh. I’m sorry we have to deal with this stuff.

  • MsD February 11, 2016 (6:44 pm)

    I’ve noticed that most of the new townhouse/condo/apartment/adpodment development between the Junction and Admiral have either surface parking on no parking (i.e. street parking).  This has got to be great news for car prowlers, as it seems like it would be easy pickings.

  • tk February 12, 2016 (9:36 am)

    I almost hit a family near lafayette.  The intersection of Admiral and California.  There was a big truck blocking my visibility of the crosswalk and I was trying to take a free right on a red.  I inched forward and a girl about 8yo or so popped out in front of me.  TG I was being attentive because that family was not being careful at all.  The mother had a small child as well. That could have been very bad.  

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