WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Officers find car-prowl loot after arresting burglary suspect

11:55 AM: Just in from Seattle Police – word of a burglary suspect arrested at a for-sale house, where officers also found items stolen in recent local car prowls:

Shortly before 6:00 pm (Tuesday), officers responded to a reported burglary in the 6300 block of 36th Avenue SW. The homeowner had gone to the house, which was unoccupied but staged for sale, and discovered drug paraphernalia inside. The homeowner immediately left the house and called 911. Officers searched the home and arrested a 36-year-old man inside. The suspect was in possession of a number of identification cards, personal checks, a laptop and other apparent stolen property. Some of the items located inside the house were taken in recent vehicle prowls in West Seattle. Officers were able to return those items to their rightful owners.

The suspect was interviewed by Major Crimes Task Force detectives before he was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of burglary and several counts of possession of stolen property.

ADDED 12:05 PM: Just looked up the suspect on the jail register. It’s the fourth time he’s been in jail since the start of the year – the register shows an arrest earlier this month for investigation of vehicle theft, an arrest in mid-January for investigation of possession of stolen property, and an arrest in early January for investigation of vehicle theft. It does not appear, checking court records, that prosecutors have yet charged him in any of those cases, nor does he appear to have a prior felony record in this state.

23 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Officers find car-prowl loot after arresting burglary suspect"

  • rico February 14, 2018 (12:24 pm)

    Fourth time in jail this year.  This justice system is like some kind of bad, cartoon comedy show. Unfortunately the criminals are the ones laughing all the way to the bank.    What can we do, other than live with a relatively high probability of being the victim of crime, or move to a place where they have a more effective system in place, cause this system shows no signs of improving, and actually appears to be getting worse as far as any accountability.  There are many examples. 

  • Al February 14, 2018 (12:31 pm)

    Was that a nook he may have had

  • Susan February 14, 2018 (12:46 pm)

    So the police are arresting this criminal and then the system lets him out – 4 times this year already. Hmmm – is there something wrong with picture. Seems the police are doing their job.

  • WSNeighbor February 14, 2018 (1:06 pm)

    So he should be back on the streets later today, smh.  There is no justice for victims in the  justice system around here, not sure why they even bother arresting people.

  • coffeedude February 14, 2018 (1:06 pm)

    Clearly the bail for this suspect is way too low….

  • Jethro Marx February 14, 2018 (2:19 pm)

    I’m just curious, where would you move, rico, to escape the scourge of property crime? And how can this be the determining factor in where you want to live? I mean, I’ve had stuff stolen a few times in my residence in Seattle, but I always viewed it as a pervasive and necessary annoyance of living in a relatively free society; I guess maybe you’re thinking of a different country, but I really don’t think the crime rates/bail situation varies a whole lot for major metropolitan areas in our country. Seattle is certainly not at the top of any crimes-per-capita mists, and despite a misplaced but widespread “feeling” our police are seeing the crime rate drop.

    Do we dramatically increase spending and build new jails, or what? It seems impractical (both draconian and prohibitively expensive) to toss someone in jail for years because they’re smoking crack or stealing your packages, and it certainly wouldn’t deter others who don’t have the luxury of rational thought as they go about their misdeeds.

    I’m just curious if you (or other this-is-an-outrage-and-I’m-looking-for-someone-to-blame types) have a solution in mind. Where should the funding for said solution come from? I hope it’s not property taxes, ’cause half the blog will lose their fn minds!

  • Me February 14, 2018 (2:50 pm)

    The same crap that happens inWS also happens in Bellevue.

  • Heartless? February 14, 2018 (2:55 pm)

    Perhaps draconian policies ARE needed…

  • rico February 14, 2018 (3:02 pm)

    You know Jort I do not have a plan in place yet, but in reality for me, the driving away factor is simply the cost of living in the Puget Sound Area, not the lack of criminal convictions.  I just find this system is a bad joke.

    I will admit I have not done research to adequately answer your questions, but I honestly fail to see how you can be comfortable with the status quo.

    Personally, I do think there needs to be more done, more spending on jails etc.  Right now there is plenty of cash flowing around here in the govt. budgets.  But I have resigned myself to the fact that the current populace of Seattle is just fine with the catch and release method of justice, as represented by your view points.

    • Jethro Marx February 14, 2018 (4:55 pm)

      I’m not “fine” with the way things are, in any sense, be it crime, the criminal justice system, or the things we as a city spend our money on, and I’m far too weird to represent any composite view. I’m just curious what we ought to do, besides complaining.

       I am sure Jort has other thoughts on the matter, although if I recall his/her general areas of passion, bikes and buses may need to be involved to rouse interest.

       The status quo sucks; if I had my hand on the purse strings, I’d be handing out food, shelter, and healthcare first. Not because it would reduce crime or traffic, but because I think we should try to make sure everyone has those things before we start worrying about other stuff.

    • Swede. February 14, 2018 (9:00 pm)

      The US have by far the highest incarseration rate in the WORLD and it sure doesn’t work well does it? A huge part of the high numbers is that many (most?) prisons are privately run, for profit corporations, so, obviously, it won’t change since making money always is #1. 

  • Fed Up Mom February 14, 2018 (3:18 pm)

    We need to advocate with the prosecutor’s office.  They do not take property crime seriously.  When I have asked police on patrol what we can do to support them, they repeatedly talk about the lack of prosecution of criminals they repeatedly arrest.

    Just this week, a car window was smashed on our block.  Our block is filled with young kids.  It scares us when this happens.  When do they start smashing home windows?  It isn’t just about property, it is about safety.  Arrested four times in 6 weeks?  That is on the prosecutor’s office.

  • Dale February 14, 2018 (3:19 pm)

    6357 36th SW?  (On the corner of Morgan, across from U-Haul).   That house was featured in a Seattle PI article last week that noted asking price was almost twice what it sold for a year ago.  That article didn’t say that the house was in tear-down condition when purchased last year, due to the years of squatters, stolen items, drugs…associated with that location.  Neighbors worked for years to get that house cleaned up.  Maybe a previous “resident” was too strung out to realize the house had been altered when he broke in…

    • WSB February 14, 2018 (3:29 pm)

      Police only released the block – 6300 – not the specific address, and Tweets by Beat only shows 63xx as well. We have covered the house you mention before. However, there is no shingle outside it now – its listing shows as sale “pending” – we drove the block for a look after this story came in – unfortunately didn’t hear about the arrest when it was happening last night, busy night and we were away from the scanner, and nobody texted (may not necessarily have been a huge-enough presence for somebody to contact us). Patrick noted during our drive that another house on the block is posted “no trespassing” though a check of at least one online real-estate service that tends to show all listings does NOT show anything else on the block – TR

  • rico February 14, 2018 (4:23 pm)

    Did someone actually say it is the same in Bellevue, that is funny.  

  • Bob February 14, 2018 (5:32 pm)

    I see a lot of people commenting about the justice system and how it is broken. The buck really lies with the voters of this city. The elected officials such as the city attorney or the county prosecutor (for felonies) are the ones who’s policies and filing standards are what decides what happens to these criminals. It is the judges who are voted into position that decide to release these criminals if they even get charged. If people want to have criminals charged and not just released the next morning, then they need to educate themselves and vote appropriately. The citizens of this city are getting exactly what they voted for.

    • CR February 14, 2018 (6:40 pm)

      Bob beat me to it and I could not have said it any better.  If you want change, your voice is your vote.  Read the fine print in the voter pamphlet and vote accordingly.  Just guessing but I expect most qualified folks that would take a more aggressive stance would not get elected and therefore don’t invest the time and money to run.  In the meantime,  reach out to the City Attorney’s Office and express your concerns about the prosecution of these types of crimes.  Also reach out to council member Lisa Herbold’s office and make her aware of your concerns.

      • WSB February 14, 2018 (7:10 pm)

        While the City Attorney’s Office handles misdemeanors, the crimes that this man is accused of are felonies, and charges would be filed by the County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In some cases charges are filed months later. And sometimes that depends on whether the case has been sent to the prosecutor by detectives – it’s not always a clear-cut case of “we sent the case, they didn’t file” – other things that factor into it would include for example the detectives’ caseload and the evidence processing (think back to years ago when it was reported that many rape cases hadn’t advanced because the DNA test kits were awaiting work at an overburdened crime lab). When I checked last week on Jorge Cruz-Benitez, who was accused of stabbing an officer in the hand while awaiting trial in a burglary case, for example, he had been released from jail, and the prosecutor’s office told me the case hadn’t been referred to them yet.

        That the man in this story hasn’t been charged yet in these cases doesn’t mean he’ll never be charged, but I thought it was worth noting that he hadn’t been charged so far; the SPD Blotter stopped with news of the arrest, and at least we can add some info by checking on the suspect’s record.

        And all this doesn’t even touch on the matter of bail and whether it’s set high, or low, or whether someone is allowed out on recognizance, or …

  • LK February 15, 2018 (8:29 am)

    Thank you to Bob, CR and the WSB for their common sense perspectives and process breakdown.  Coming from Oakland, West Seattle is a safe haven.  Imagine waiting 45 minutes for the police to show up in the midst of a home burglary, or living on a street of million dollar homes where ALL car windows are smashed on a regular basis.  Looking out for one another and keeping things locked up and hidden from view (leave absolutely nothing in your car) helps but agree a lot more needs to be done from the top down.  It’s not life and death but these nuisance crimes slowly erode at the quality of life.    

  • andy February 15, 2018 (9:06 am)

    Bring back chain gangs.

  • WSB February 16, 2018 (8:11 pm)

    A quick update for anyone checking back on this – the jail register shows the suspect, Nicholas D. Watson, was charged today, but the case number does not contain documents in the online file, which is odd, so I may not have details of the charges before Tuesday (since Mon’s a holiday). He remains in jail, bail set at $20,000.

Sorry, comment time is over.