West Seattle Crime Watch: Bizarre vandalism; court update

In the neighborhood along SW Spokane by the west end of the West Seattle Bridge, a neighbor who goes by “Shout” reports a bizarre case of vandalism late Monday night. He says the utility installation up on the slope was being pounded on by somebody who sounded as if they had a sledgehammer. “Shout” called police, and though they appeared to him to have checked out the area cursorily and left, the would-be vandal did stop… but not before scuffing up the facility (see the photo above).

Also tonight, for those keeping an eye on the case: The indecent-liberties trial of alleged Lincoln Park attacker Duane Starkenburg has been pushed back a couple more weeks because of factors including lawyer scheduling. It was supposed to start this month – but now a new date of April 2nd has been set.

Chris M March 20, 2012 (6:59 am)

That kinda looks like how our wall at work looked when a robber took a sledgehammer to the Fire Dept Access Key box — which they then used to access the building after hours. (The alarms went off – else it would have been a bad situation.)

If that was the mount for a fire dept keybox, it might be time to re-key the facility.

Harvey March 20, 2012 (9:52 am)

“these are the things we can do without, come on, I’m talking to you, come on”

WsBoB March 20, 2012 (9:54 am)

Good call Chris! Looks like they stole the lock box or something else of value. Hopefully Utilities knows what they stole.

A March 20, 2012 (12:26 pm)

Perhaps they thought it was the source of “The Hum” and after too many sleep-deprived nights, took it upon themselves to attempt to stop it.

knoxbox March 20, 2012 (12:29 pm)

This happened to our condo building a few years ago (would-be thief breaking the knox box with FD keys off the wall with a sledgehammer.) Police who took the report at the time said they were dealing with a rash of these, both in commercial and residential properties, and I don’t believe a perpetrator was ever caught.

We got the impression that this was becoming a common MO – steal the knox box, break into it somewhere else, then use the keys at a future time to burglarize the facility.