Just back from checking the past week’s worth of reports at the Southwest Precinct (thanks again to the fine folks there for the access). We’ve got a variety of incidents to tell you about – starting with this eyebrow raiser (note that we have agreed, as is standard for police-blotter reporting, to omit specific addresses and victims’ names): Between 9 pm Christmas Eve and 5:30 am the morning after Christmas, somebody broke into a fast-food restaurant in the 3000 block of California through the drive-thru window. They stole just one item: The donation jar — which they had to pry off the front counter — full of bills and coins collected for a charity! No arrest reported so far. Here are more highlights/lowlights, in reverse chronological order (including the tale of the Christmas Canine Chase):

MYSTERIOUS SHELLS: 3:19 pm yesterday, 26th/Findlay — 39 spent rifle casings found, no one knows where they came from, no reports of gunshots having been heard.

BREAK-IN, BUT NOTHING MISSING: 2:47 pm yesterday, an alarm sounded in the 4700 block of 28th SW; the back door was forced open, but it didn’t appear anything was taken.

BURGLARY: Sometime yesterday morning, someone broke through a front door in the 4700 block of Cottage Place SW and made off with jewelry, cash, and two TVs.

VANDALISM BY HEAT: In the 4400 block of 26th SW, the owner of a pickup discovered that sometime Wednesday or Thursday, the passenger-side window of his truck had been shattered while remaining in its frame, which was partly melted. Police think some kind of flame or “incendiary device” was held against the window long enough to do the damage.

CAR STOLEN, THEN FOUND: At 7:34 am yesterday, police found a car in the 3700 block of SW Graham that had been stolen the evening of Dec. 20 from the 4500 block of 36th SW.

BREAKUP LEADS TO THREATS: A woman living in the 3200 block of Avalon called police after midnight Wednesday morning to say her ex-boyfriend had turned up in her parking garage; she said he had threatened to kill her when she broke up with him at his house in North Seattle the previous Sunday morning, but he passed out “from extreme intoxication” before anything happened, and she didn’t report it to police. When officers arrived to handle her call on Wednesday, he was already gone.

CHRISTMAS CANINE CHASE: Just after 4:30 am Christmas morning, police got a report of someone climbing onto car roofs in the vicinity of 16th and Cambridge. Officers found a 45-year-old man who told them a dog was chasing him, and when he climbed onto a car to try to avoid getting bit, he accidentally broke the car’s antenna. The officers also found the culprit canine, described as a medium-size brown pit bull, and took it to a “temporary holding facility.”

CHRISTMAS CAR THEFT: Between 4:30 pm Christmas Eve and quarter past midnight Christmas Day, someone stole a van from the 9200 block of 26th SW while its owner was at a family Christmas party.

CAR STOLEN, THEN FOUND WITH A SUSPECT INSIDE: At 4 am on Christmas Eve morning, a minivan (left unlocked with its keys stowed in the center console) was stolen from the 8800 block of Delridge; its owner called police around 11 am to say he’d spotted it at 21st SW & Delridge, and officers found a 28-year-old man hiding in the back seat. They arrested him, after finding he was in possession of marijuana (as well as a screwdriver and a flashlight).

ALERT WITNESS HELPS POLICE NAB SUSPECTED GRAFFITI VANDALISM SUSPECTS: Just before 9:30 am on Dec. 21, police got a call from someone near E.C. Hughes Park (28th/Holden) who saw a group of young people and heard the sound of a paint can being shaken. Officers found three boys and two girls; one girl had purple paint on her fingers, the other had green paint on hers, and one spray-paint can in each of those colors was found nearby, as was some graffiti vandalism. One of those suspects is 14, the other is 15.

As we always remind you – don’t hesitate to call police when you see or hear something suspicious, and of course when you believe a crime has been (or is being) committed. In addition to 911, there’s a non-emergency line at 206/625-5011. A big collection of Seattle Police crime-prevention resources is available online here. And previous WSB crime coverage is archived here.