WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Burglary attempt; garage intruder; bicycle found

Three reader reports:

BURGLARY ATTEMPT: Cozbi on SW Dakota north of The Junction says this happened around 7 tonight:

Heard footsteps of person walking up to front door (I could hear them lingering and breathing heavy once onto the stoop. The peephole was open and you could see into the movie we were watching; lights on in the house and all.) They opened screen door and we heard/saw them messing with door handle but door was locked. They closed the screen door and then, seemingly, body slammed the door two maybe three times. Then I heard them grunt a little and walk down the steps leaving.

Police was called and a report filed when they paid a visit to check it all out. They assume attempted burglary. Seemed very odd for a prank and we have no enemies. Wood screen door is all cracked and broken.

Lock your doors! Keep your eyes open and report even odd occurrences if they are out of place!

GARAGE INTRUDER: From Andrew:

A couple of days ago, we had a random guy tailed a neighbor and drove into our condo garage. He spent 20 to 30 mins wondering around the garage looking for things to steal and used to break into cars. But before he could break into any cars, I walked into the garage and surprised him. I confronted him and he gave me some excuses about visiting someone in the building. None of the information he provided made sense as the unit number and name he gave doesn’t exist in our building. After a few minutes, he backed his car out of the garage and took off. I am hoping by sharing this with you, people in West Seattle can keep an eye out for this dude as he’s pretty brave or stupid for driving his car into our garage in the middle of the day. Below are some grainy pictures of him and a description of him and his car.

The break-in 12/13 @ 3:29 pm to 4:08 pm
Silver Nissan Altima 2007 to 2012 with tinted windows
License plate # ATN26–
No front plate but had a white sign with “car sales” sign and is missing the Nissan emblem on the front grill.

The guy was white, around 5’9 to 6’0 tall, medium build with facial hair. Brownish hair. Wearing a black parka-type jacket with a black baseball cap.

FOUND BIKE: The unsigned report says, “While out walking our dog, my daughter and I found a Trek Antelope 820 mountain bike deep in the thorny bushes at the fish ladder overlook, above the Fauntleroy ferry.” Here’s the photo:

2016-12-17-16-31-12

Still there at last report.

9 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Burglary attempt; garage intruder; bicycle found"

  • Mike December 19, 2016 (8:53 am)

    Criminals are getting very brazen in their attempts lately.  SPD is overloaded with the few officers that are available now.  Vote against council members limiting the resources SPD is asking for.

    • AMD December 19, 2016 (12:06 pm)

      Which council members would that be?  I was under the impression they are okay on resources to pay new officers and that the shortage is coming from lack of qualified candidates.  Further, the restrictions that have been placed on SPD came from the US Justice Department, not anyone on the city council.  

      Do you have a specific vote you can point to where you see council members taking resources away from SPD so they stay short-staffed or are you just blaming the people you don’t like for the things you don’t like with no regard as to whether or not they’re related?

      • John December 28, 2016 (10:22 am)

        “Lack of qualified candidates,” is an over-simplification of the problem that Seattle is not solving.

        The entire recruiting and training process is deficient.  There are qualified people that want to become police officers, but right now Seattle is not paying enough to attract, train, and retain these people.

        Since the Mayor and City Council are in charge of budget, it would be proper to lay much of the blame upon them.  

  • Tony December 19, 2016 (9:30 am)

    I have a follow up on the Garage Intruder and the full License plate number.  At 7:20 am on Wednesday Dec. 14th I looked out the back window and a car was parked near mine in the 3800 block of Beach Dr SW.  A  guy was rummaging through a car and tossed a few items out.  Both car and person were unfamiliar to the area and when he saw us looking at him the closed up and drove away.  He didn’t go very far so I walked to the street corner to get the plate number and call 911 with the info.  The car was empty and shut down. 

    After snapping a shot of the plate WA #AYN2657, a silver Nissan,  I started to walk away and heard retching noises from a port-a-potty.  From a safe distance I called 911 to report the suspicious activity.  The 911 operator treated me very poorly as though I was committing a crime. 

    The thief got back in the car and drove around the corner and stopped in another condo parking lot for a few minutes, got out of the car, walked around, and drove off again.

    About 45 minutes later a police dispatcher called me to see if the stollen car was still around.  She asked if I would talk to a police office about the activity.  She said an officer would be by.  I waited another 45 minutes and no police arrived so I had to go to work.

    • Chuck December 19, 2016 (10:42 am)

      Thank you, Tony, for doing your part and then some. Yes, vote out every single one of the sitting council and Mayor who refuse to staff our police properly. And this, during what has to be our most robust economy and tax base in history! If the money isn’t there now, than when??

      I get it–this is a big city with LOTS going on. But if we are understaffed to the point that suspicious activity is not even sniffed at–much less curtailed–than we are in a constant cycle of chasing our tail. In other words, why bother reporting at all? But, we have plenty of unused rentable bicycles! Shame on the entire “leadership” of this city. Ridiculous.

  • Wendy December 19, 2016 (9:53 am)

    Where is the Condo that had the intruder?  This same thing happened a few months ago at a condo on  Alki.

    • WSB December 19, 2016 (10:36 am)

      Wendy – Andrew’s e-mail subject line included “Junction,” and that’s the only location info. – TR

  • Eman December 19, 2016 (11:53 am)

    Cozbi,

    We’re practically neighbors…this really pisses me off. Keep your head on a swivel peeps, I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse in our fair city.

     

  • karen christensen December 20, 2016 (9:53 am)

    We gave SPD a name because one of the perps in the October, 2016 burglary at Alki/Bonaire was identified. We have not heard a thing. The investigators seemed to be very behind  on the information gathering. I assume because personal assaults  and gang/gun issues take priority over personal property losses. 

    I know part of the problem is getting qualified recruits on board. It takes a lot of training and it is not an easy on-boarding process. That said, there are many actions that could help with getting recruits. These come from the top down. I agree with looking at city council members, who else? 

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