West Seattle Crime Watch reader report today from Kallie:

My boyfriend’s car was broken into on 39th Ave SW, near 39th and Forest, last night. His laptop bag (with laptop) and gym bag were stolen out of the car. Unfortunately we believe the car may have been unlocked. We found the duffle with everything, including a $20 bill, besides his Levi jeans and polo tshirt around the corner on the sidewalk. Additionally we found some papers from his work bag on the sidewalk a half block up. Nothing else was taken out of the car and based in what they left behind I’m thinking it was some a–hole kids who were on foot. They left a half-drank bottle of pineapple vodka in my front lawn as well, which is covered in fingerprints. I left a sign in my yard requesting the laptop back with no questions asked … Police said to call back Monday-Friday and we will give the vodka bottle to them then.

My neighbor sometimes leaves her car unlocked and said she thought hers had been rifled through last night too, however the only items they have in there are kids’ toys. She doesn’t think anything was taken.

Hoping to get the word out so when the (thieves) who did this realize that a corporate, password and encrypted laptop has no value to them, they will bring it back and not throw it away.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch updates:

(One of nine photos published in our original report last Saturday)
TIRE-SLASHING SPREE UPDATE: We finally obtained the police report written after officers talked to many of the people whose vehicles’ tires were slashed late July 4th or early July 5th in Seaview – here’s our original story. The report includes 22 cases totaling 30 tires; neighbors cited up to 40, so if it happened to you and you haven’t reported it, be sure to contact police. We also were reminded by SPD that if anyone with a surveillance camera anywhere nearby hasn’t checked it yet – maybe you were away for an extended holiday weekend? – please do, before the recording is lost. Meantime, neighbors’ reward fund is up to $750 and they are still accepting contributions – go here. And the neighbor who organized the fund has posted in the WSB Forums looking for help in putting up posters touting the reward for tips (follow that link – her contact info is there too).

ALAN POLEVIA IN JAIL AGAIN: Last fall, we covered the sentencing of 33-year-old repeat offender Alan Polevia, who had made news both regionally – for escaping from Harborview while handcuffed – and locally, for various property-crime cases. He was sentenced to six months, and got out this spring. This week, a reader tip brought the news that he was booked into King County Jail again Tuesday morning. Charges have since been filed against him; it’s not a West Seattle case, but because of his history in this area, it seemed noteworthy. According to court documents, Polevia is charged with second-degree burglary and firearm theft for a late-April break-in at Boulevard Park Pawn and Loan (11848 Des Moines Memorial Drive). 13 guns were stolen, in addition to other items; two safes containing at least some of those guns had been pried open. The King County Sheriff’s Office report says deputies came into contact with Polevia that day about a mile away and noticed him both “highly under the influence of narcotics” and wearing an empty holster that he couldn’t explain. It had a price tag from the pawn shop; prints on one of the pried-open safes matched his. His bail is set at $50,000, plus $500 for an unrelated failure-to-appear case.

Four months after regional media first reported allegations that three people – including two off-duty Seattle firefighters – attacked a homeless man downtown, the City Attorney’s Office has filed criminal charges, and court documents confirm that one defendant is a West Seattle resident.

The incident happened in March at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Occidental Park downtown.

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Two strong-arm robberies this week in West Seattle both ended with the victims reported being assaulted and being robbed of their smartphones. Both happened in local parks; we obtained police reports for both:

HAMILTON VIEWPOINT PARK, MONDAY NIGHT: Police were called to the park in North Admiral at 10 pm Monday night. The two victims told police they were in the grassy area of the park, kicking around a soccer ball, when three people approached them and asked if they could play too. They did, for about 10 minutes, and the victims decided to sit down to rest. At that point, the report says, one of the other three yelled “You’re getting robbed!” and all three attacked the first two, punching and kicking them, and then stealing personal belongings that had been on the ground nearby. As they got away, the three attacker/robbers dropped everything but one victim’s iPhone. The report says they left in what looked like a blue late ’90s or early ’00s blue BMW. The three were described as males – one white, 6 feet tall, 170 pounds, medium-length blonde hair, baggy clothing; another dark-skinned, “possibly East African,” 5’11”, 150 pounds, with a flat-top haircut; the other black with a medium complexion, 6’3″, 230 pounds, short shaved hair. Seattle Fire was called to check out the victims’ injuries; one was described as having a swelling on his jaw “the size of a golf ball.” Police did not find the robbers.

ROXHILL PARK, TUESDAY NIGHT: This call came in to police at about 10:41 pm Tuesday. The victim said he was jumped while walking southbound on the north-south trail in Roxhill Park, just south of the bus stop in the 2700 block of SW Barton. Both robbers hit and kicked him before taking two smartphones from him, an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy. He told police he recognized the two because they had been riding the bus with him from downtown all the way to Westwood, and that he had seen them often on Route 120 and on RapidRide Line C. Police did not find these robbers either; the victim described them as black, about 16 years old, both wearing black T-shirts and sweatpants (one orange, one black).

(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
11:30 PM: Police and fire are rushing to a report of a 20-year-old man stabbed at/near 61st/Alki. That’s all we know so far.

11:38 PM UPDATE: From the scanner (our crew is still en route), the victim is reported to have been stabbed in the thigh.

11:44 PM UPDATE: In medical communications, the wound is described as to the “right flank” and the victim is now described as 23 years old.

12:08 AM UPDATE: Police at the scene told us the stabbing happened when two groups of people started fighting/arguing. One person is being held for questioning.

8:59 PM UPDATE: The comment discussion has included reports that 911 was called even before the stabbing and told that trouble was brewing, and concerns about the response time. We inquired this morning with SPD and received a response this evening from Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske, who has spoken at multiple community meetings recently (including the Block Watch Captains’ Network this past Tuesday) about the precinct’s Alki plan.

“We dispatched the call pretty quickly, but between travel time and getting the officers together to go in as a team it took about 8-10 minutes to get there and exert control over the event. They wanted to go in as a team due to the number of people involved in the fight. There was one subject who was stabbed in the abdomen; we did some interviews but we do not have a suspect in custody yet.

We did not have foot officers on scene [before the event]; they are currently working 1400 to 2200 Friday and Saturday [at Alki] as that is when we have experienced the largest crowds.”

No word on the condition of the victim in last night’s stabbing; without a name, the hospital won’t release information to the media.

Two cases in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight – first, a warrant arrest in a very public place:

ARREST AT IN MORGAN JUNCTION: A reader sent that photo, asking if we knew why police “swooped in” on a car by the Morgan Junction McDonald’s and arrested a man who was one of two people inside. We have confirmed it was 43-year-old Bryan Tiedeman, a repeat offender whose case came up briefly at last night’s West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network meeting. Court records show a warrant out for his arrest since last Monday for failing to appear for a hearing that day. It’s the same case reported here last December, involving stolen-car-related charges; court documents said at the time that Tiedeman had been booked into the King County Jail 34 times, for 59 warrants, in 20 years. He also has been charged in another case since then, involving a car stolen in SeaTac and found in May near the house where the police report says Tiedeman lives, near Lincoln Park; after 17 days in jail related to that, court documents show, he was released to the day-reporting program known as CCAP. The warrant sets his bail at $75,075.

ALKI INCIDENT: An Alki-area woman wanted to sound the alarm about an incident that happened to someone she knows late last Thursday night. She says the victim, in her twenties, was walking on Alki Avenue by 61st SW around 11 pm when a man “lunged” at her and “chased her three blocks … yelling obscenities at her and telling her he was going to ‘get her’,” until she found a restaurant open near 59th/Alki and ducked inside for safety. The man is described only as 5-10, early 30s, African-American, shoulder-length black dreadlocks, and the victim thought she had seen him before in the area. She was not harmed but did file a report with police. Side note from the victim’s friend: “She tried to wave down two different cars that passed her in the street and neither car stopped, or even slowed to help.”

(Photo republished with permission of Beach Drive Blog)
9:21 AM: If you heard and/or saw the early morning commotion off Beach Drive – a car went into the water, according to Beach Drive Blog, which reports nobody was inside. The BDB report says a concrete block was found in the car, possibly used to weigh down the gas pedal and “launch” the car into the water off the embankment. Stolen car? No word so far; we’ll follow up.

9:38 AM: Since no official police information is available so far, we asked the BDB team if the car had been towed from the water – Rhonda confirms it was (and has published a followup with dayilght aftermath photos).

When Nancy Driver and the Walking on Logs Landscape Restoration Group got out to the famous bridge-side sculptures for cleanup work this morning, they made a startling discovery – one of the sculptures is missing, apparently stolen, nothing left behind but its foot, the rest of the sculpture cleanly sawed off:

Nancy reported it to police, and is hoping someone saw something – perhaps a resident in one of the nearby homes on the other side of the fence, along the spur of Fauntleroy. She and the other volunteers who maintain the area hope to get the city to keep the area clearer for line-of-sight reasons too. But in the meantime, the question is – who stole one of the dancing-children sculptures by Phillip Levine that have been at the site for 18 years? Here’s a WSB file photo by Christopher Boffoli:

Call 911 if you think you’ve seen it.

6:28 PM: From Jessica via the WSB Facebook page:

Our 2002 Suzuki Hayabusa was just stolen in the last 3 hours from the back alley of 35th Ave between Andover and Dakota. License plate 0A5253. Waiting on officers now, please be on the lookout!

If you spot it, call 911.

7:27 PM: An update from Jessica – they found it:

My husband found it stashed on 34th Ave just a block from our house. It had been stolen, rolled, and parked right on the street, presumably until the thief could come back with a truck. Many thanks to Officer Nicholson for coming out so quickly and taking the report!

The King County Sheriff’s Office deputy jailed and charged Thursday with three felonies is a West Seattle resident. That’s according to the lengthy document charging 49-year-old Darrion Holiwell with promoting prostitution, theft, and a drug violation. The charges filed against him Thursday have been widely reported in regional media; we obtained the charging papers, which cite a Puget Ridge address for Holiwell, identified as a SWAT team member and as KCSO’s lead firearms instructor, as well as owner of a private business that “specializes in firearms training, tactical training, and the sale of tactical equipment.” That business, the charging documents say, took Holiwell and his wife to Las Vegas for a trade show in 2012, leading to a discussion of her possibly working there as an exotic dancer, something she had done elsewhere before. That in turn eventually led to her working from a South King County condo as an “escort,” it is alleged, even as the Holiwells’ marriage faltered, and that is what he is charged with helping facilitate, as a form of domestic violence against her. Some of the evidence on that charge came from Holiwell’s iPhone, seized when his Puget Ridge home was searched in mid-April as part of the investigation, the court documents say, while simultaneously another warrant was served at the KCSO gun range in Ravensdale, where he was at work.

Other items police say they found at his house in the April search included drugs, mostly steroids and substances used in conjunction with them. And the charging documents make note of what was not found during the search of Holiwell’s house: A “large gun safe” was empty, though that is where unnamed “witnesses” told police he stores his “high-quality personal firearms,” and searchers didn’t find a single gun or round of ammunition anywhere in the house. The theft charge, meantime, involves allegations that Holiwell sold KCSO ammunition and other property, mostly to create an unauthorized “slush fund” of sorts. You can read more about the case in this report from our partners at The Seattle Times, who covered Sheriff John Urquhart‘s Thursday afternoon briefing about this case and an investigation of whether others might be involved. Holiwell has been on leave since mid-April and is jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail, scheduled to answer the charges next month. He was taken into custody Thursday morning at the King County Courthouse downtown, according to the arrest report.

This might be the clue that solves the case of the bicycle rider hit by a driver last month near the east end of the “low bridge,” and left lying in the road, badly hurt. Seattle Police say the hit-run driver would have been in a metallic blue Saturn S series car similar to the one shown above:

After processing evidence found at the scene of a May 22nd crash on Harbor Island, investigators have the type of car driven by a suspect, who struck a cyclist and sped away.

Witnesses found the bloodied and seriously injured cyclist lying in the street at 11 Ave. SW and SW Spokane St around 8:20 PM and called 911.

Seattle Fire Department Medics responded and transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Traffic Collision Investigation (TCIS) detectives also responded to the scene and are investigating the case. Detectives believe the victim was struck while riding westbound along Spokane Street.

After painstaking work identifying vehicle fragments left at the scene, detectives have determined the suspect was driving a Saturn S series car. The car is painted metallic blue and after the crash was missing its passenger side mirror. A section of the bumper was also left at the scene of the crime.

Detectives are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crime or have seen a car matching the description to please call Detective Andrew Norton at (206) 684-8934.

To see more photos – go to the full post on SPD Blotter. Police had already said they believed a metallic-blue car was involved – but this is the first time they’ve publicized further details of the crash that sent 30-year-old John Macy to the hospital.