West Seattle Crime Watch: Did you see this business burglary? Plus, 2 car prowls

We start West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon with a business burglary caught on video:

Those are the two clearest short clips of what happened at The Guenther Group‘s HQ overnight. From proprietor Kelly Guenther:

Guenther Group was broken into at 10:44 last night — someone lobbed a paving stone through a huge plate glass window. If anyone heard or saw anything, it would be great to know.

Address is 3444 California Ave. SW. Break-in occurred at 10:44 last night and was fully recorded by security camera footage. Only the doors are armed to the alarm system, so the alarm apparently did not go off. But the thief was brazen. He returned to steal even more stuff a 2nd time and then was on the scene again a minute before police arrived at 12:12 am. Thief was in a hoodie — still determining if he wore gloves.

Given the earlier time of the break-in and the Seahawks win last night — and my proximity to apartments and live-work townhomes, I”m amazed no one heard this or called the police earlier. You can actually see people walking by during this. Some good Samaritans finally called it in about midnight.

If anyone has any information, it would be great to know about. I’d like to catch this guy if possible and witnesses will be key to this. He kept returning to the scene — and was pretty obvious with a hoodie parka pulled over his head on a warmer night.

Also today, two car-prowl reports:

CAR PROWLER(S) STEAL DIAPER BAG: From Darci: “Last night my car was broken into in the High Point neighborhood and all they took was my diaper bag. There’s nothing of value in it so I’m hoping they just ditch it. If they do ditch it I would love for someone to be able to get it back to me.” It’s a black Fawn Design-brand diaper bag.

FAUNTLEROY CAR PROWL: From 45th SW/SW Director, Matt reports, “I had managed to avoid it for my six years of living here, but am sad to announce that I have now joined the not-so-exclusive car prowl club. Our Prius was accessed and the center console was rummaged through sometime between 1AM – 7AM today (Election Day). It doesn’t appear that anything beyond spare change was taken, and no damage was done to the car, so that’s some silver lining. This happened in our open carport that is equipped with motion sensing lights (which hopefully were part of the reason not more was taken).”

14 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Did you see this business burglary? Plus, 2 car prowls"

  • S November 8, 2016 (2:23 pm)

    If you have something to report is there a case number and who do you call.

  • John November 8, 2016 (2:53 pm)

    Looks like no gloves on to me…. They did a great job covering themselves up.

  • Chuck November 8, 2016 (2:57 pm)

    Optical illusion, or two separate thieves? His coat/rainsuit is dark in the color vid, but light-colored in the B/W version. Shouldn’t it still be dark? Sorry for  your troubles either way. Man, how I wish someone had called just a bit earlier. We need every one of these selfish people off of our streets. Even if for mere hours. 

    Unrelated, but someone re-painted the electrical box in the Morgan Junction that had previously been tagged with a (I believe) Satanic symbol. I mean, it must have taken 20+ minutes to paint! I suspect the person who painted it either lives very close by, or had a lookout. Either way, SOMEONE should have seen them do it in the middle of the night. Galling.

    The “art” looks to be an improvement, but since our SPD Graffiti team did nothing with the last art, they’ll be getting yet another email. Sad times, folks.

  • Fauntleroyness November 8, 2016 (3:00 pm)

    Matt from Fauntleroy, welcome to the club.  Been in your neighborhood for almost 20 yrs. and it’s happened twice.  There’s a guy who’s been caught on camera who just meanders down streets looking for cars with open doors who takes the change (mostly) and moves along.  He might be back in our rotation?

  • S November 8, 2016 (4:54 pm)

    I really have information on one of those videos and would live to find out who I need to contact. 

    • WSB November 8, 2016 (5:22 pm)

      Hi, S. I asked Kelly for the incident # earlier but don’t have it yet. It should have been on Tweets by Beat but I’ve looked for it twice and didn’t see it.

  • S, call the police November 8, 2016 (5:25 pm)

    If you have any information, you need to call 911.  Tell them what you know asap. 

  • S November 8, 2016 (5:54 pm)

    I was able to speak with Kelly. Thanks

  • Katie Guenther November 8, 2016 (6:16 pm)

    Police report number is 2016-403-941

  • Katie Guenther November 8, 2016 (7:03 pm)

    S – please call the police.

    kelly tried to call them and share your info, but they won’t take YOUR info FROM HIM. Please call.  Thanks!

    • S November 9, 2016 (3:13 pm)

      I will contact them with the info I have. 

  • Kevin November 8, 2016 (8:07 pm)

    How do you post video or pictures on he WSB, we have pictures and video of two different people stealing packages out of our condo building.

    • WSB November 8, 2016 (8:16 pm)

      Please e-mail us. If you already have uploaded the video someplace that is embeddable, like YouTube, please send the link to the clip. editor@westseattleblog.com

  • jka November 8, 2016 (10:26 pm)

    omg, our car was broken into sometime after pm, and all they took is the exact backpack the person is wearing in this video. Holy moly. He went through the front and didn’t even steal what was in the bag . he emptied the bag and just took it. Now I see why. ugh. 

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