West Seattle crime watch: From the latest police reports

Two main headlines from the latest stack of reports at the Southwest Precinct: handcuffs_2.jpgAn alert neighbor helped police nab three burglary suspects, and somebody targeted two cars driving along Delridge. First, the cars: Both incidents happened Friday night while the drivers were heading northbound in the 4500 block of Delridge. First, a 34-year-old woman driving a Nissan Quest told police that around 7:25 pm that night, her passenger-side window suddenly shattered; then, a 43-year-old man driving a Mercedes heard something hit his passenger-side door around 7:30 pm, and when he stopped, he noticed a small hole made by what looked to have been a BB pellet. Nobody hurt in either case, and no arrests reported so far. (In case you were wondering, that is 3 miles north of where bicyclist Peter McKay was shot with pellets on Delridge last month.) Now, the rest of the reports, starting with the burglary arrests:

ABSCONDING WITH APPLIANCES, BUT NOT FOR LONG: Early Friday, in the 4800 block of Delridge, a man heard voices coming from the alley near his house. He looked out the window and saw a new gas range and new dishwasher right in front of his house. Suspecting a burglary in progress, he called 911, then saw three people in the alley load those two appliances into a pickup truck and take off. Police spotted the pickup. stopped it at 26th & Genesee, and arrested the suspects; when officers went back to the for-sale townhouse that had been broken into, they discovered the stacked washer/dryer also had been targeted, but hadn’t been taken because of problems disconnecting the water lines — which nonetheless had been damaged and had leaked enough water to damage the townhouse’s flooring.

WAS THAT MY CAR? REALLY? A hit-run/DUI arrest at 35th & Barton early this morning started when police en route to another call spotted a car smacked into a power pole, its wheels up on the sidewalk, at the intersection’s southeast corner. Nobody was in the car, but officers saw two men walking nearby, and got one of them to finally admit it was his car, though he insisted he had been driving on Roxbury, not Barton, among other discrepancies in his story. Along the way to a blood-alcohol test that registered more than twice the legal limit, he also questioned the officer’s competency and spat on the patrol car’s hood. He’s facing charges including DUI, negligent driving, and hit-run property damage; police believe he was speeding and trying to turn from 35th onto Barton when he had trouble making the turn and hit the pole instead.

ANOTHER DUI ARREST, WITH A CLOSE CALL: Another suspected drunk driver whose blood-alcohol level registered more than twice the legal limit was taken into custody after almost hitting two cars early Sunday morning at West Marginal SW and Highland Park Way SW — one of those cars happened to be a police vehicle.

BUSINESS BURGLARY ON CALIFORNIA AVE: An employee arriving for work at an office in the 5000 block of California this morning discovered someone had broken into the business by pulling out part of a window and its frame. The burglar(s) took items including a boxed laptop, 10 DVDs, and personal mementos.

MYSTERY ATTACK: Police are trying to unravel what happened to a 22-year-old man who turned up beaten and bloody in The Junction around 3 pm Friday afternoon. The first call reported the man at an apartment building in the 4500 block of 44th SW; while police were headed that way, they found the man at 44th & Alaska. He told them two people, described only as “white males,” jumped him somewhere nearby, sometime after he had bought alcohol for two juveniles, though he did not say those same people had been involved in the attack. After medics took him to the hospital, police continued on to the address they’d originally been called about. There, they saw blood in a walkway, so they checked on nearby apartments; at one, they found a 15-year-old boy who said the attack victim had been there earlier but also claimed not to know anything about the attack, though the boy did admit to knowing the victim as someone with a reputation of routinely buying alcohol for underage people in the area.

THEFT FROM UNLOCKED CAR: Around 2 pm Friday afternoon, an 87-year-old woman told police, someone stole $100, a credit card, and a checkbook from her unlocked car parked in The Junction at California and Oregon.

THEFT FROM LOCKED CAR: A man heard his car alarm go off around 4 am Friday morning in the 1600 block of SW Thistle. He didn’t see anything amiss when he looked out the window, but later in the morning, he discovered the passenger window had been smashed, and a CD case containing about 50 discs was missing; the culprit(s) left blood evidence behind, too, having apparently gotten cut while reaching through the broken window.

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.

4 Replies to "West Seattle crime watch: From the latest police reports"

  • Todd in Wstwood/S.Delridge December 31, 2007 (7:03 pm)

    Is there an e-mail contact for the S.W. Precinct? There is alot of little things that go on in my area that I feel guilty about calling on, but someone could read an email easier.

    For the record:

    21st and Roxbury, our Subaru wagon has been broken into twice in the last 4 months.

    Misc. graffiti between Barton and Roxbury in the alleys and fences.

    Neighbor’s giant garbage pile and 2 non running trucks out back attracts rats and looks W.T.

  • WSB December 31, 2007 (7:31 pm)

    I gotta tell ya, they insist they want to hear about every little thing – that involves a crime. Graffiti, crime. Car broken into, even if nothing taken, crime. Filing police reports enables them not only to track trends but also to allocate resources. Neighbor’s giant garbage pile, not a crime but there’s a lot of resources for reporting that kind of thing in other ways (I don’t have at fingertips yet but will get to it later).

  • todd in westwood/S.Delridge January 1, 2008 (7:40 pm)

    I found it. It is thru the city’s dept. of Planning and Development.
    http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Enforcement/Code_Compliance/Common_Violations/default.asp

  • RS January 2, 2008 (1:35 pm)

    Blood evidence, huh? Does the police department actually DO anything in cases of car vandalism and theft? When I had multiple car break-ins back east I felt stupid even asking the police if they were going to follow up on the stolen merchandise a car thief had left behind in my recovered car. Reminded me of Big Lebowski- “I’ll just check with the boys down at the crime lab. They got us working in shifts!”

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