West Seattle Crime Watch: Police pursuing robber

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Quick Southwest Precinct update: Diva Espresso (on Fauntleroy west of Avalon) was robbed this morning; police say they know who they are looking for and hope to make an arrest soon.

Anony January 16, 2008 (1:17 pm)

WSB –

I have only been reading your crime-related posts for the past 2 weeks or so. My question is, is the number of incidents seen these past few weeks normal or have you noticed (just going off your crime sources, such as a blotter etc.) an uptick?

Libby January 16, 2008 (2:46 pm)

Oh no! They have some wonderful paintings at Diva now; I hope they weren’t stolen.

Lachlan January 16, 2008 (3:13 pm)

EEK! The girls at Dive rock. I hope they catch the jerk(s).

WSB January 16, 2008 (3:15 pm)

Anony – Lt. Paulsen from the precinct noted at last night’s Community Safety Partnership meeting that as he had predicted in fall, after West Seattle burglaries, for example, hit a two-year low by mid-fall, they took an uptick for winter, particularly the holiday season. What’s also taken an uptick lately is their “clearance rate” (translation: arrests) of such cases. I have not done an extensive analysis of WS crime but in my general experience in citywide media etc., I can tell you that this isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately burglary and car theft are fairly common crimes. What is worth noting is the relatively low rate of violent crimes (knock wood). Many other big cities, in a big neighborhood the size of West Seattle, there might be so many, we would need a whole separate blog just to chronicle them. We are writing more about them here on WSB not to scare people or make them think this is a crime-ridden area, but instead to let you know what’s going on and where – so we can all watch out for each other and hopefully know more about what it takes to help prevent crime and solve it.

Mike Dady January 16, 2008 (3:51 pm)

My hope is that the WSB’s sharing of crime incidents such as this one at Diva will help inspire all of us do our part to keep our eyes and ears open and call in questionable observations to SPD. The Blogs crime reportage may also help to remove the rose colored glasses from some folks who just might think that WS is a knock-off of Mayberry R.F.D. As the WSB stated above, WS is not prone to major violent crime, but theft and other lower level crime can really wear a community down….

Dawson January 16, 2008 (6:06 pm)

Interesting. As I was driving to work, and got to Diva, 2 squad cars went chasing out of their lot with lights on. A 3rd tore after them just after I passed, and 2 more jumped the light at Avalon and Fauntleroy. I was assuming they got a call for something in the Junction the way they were moving.

Anony January 16, 2008 (9:40 pm)

Was this a holdup type burglary or a break in when no one was there type burglary?

WSB January 16, 2008 (10:30 pm)

Robbery means people were there – holdup.

JimmyG January 17, 2008 (9:26 am)

Actually, the mere presence of people isn’t what makes something a robbery.
Robbery means a level of force was used to take (or attempt to take) property from another. So a weapon needs to be used or displayed, or physical force used to get property.

For example, just because you are at home when someone breaks into your house it doesn’t make it a robbery.

WSB January 17, 2008 (9:30 am)

Hi, sorry, I seem to have suffered a clarity-ectomy this week. Trust me, I know; I wrote the style guides for most newsrooms where I worked and had to teach countless reporters and writers the difference between burglary and robbery (so often, someone would write “they broke into the store in the dead of night and robbed it”). I was trying to do shorthand here just to clarify that my understanding is that this happened while the store was open, not a “burglary” while it was closed. (Although I know there are also times when “burglary” applies to an open business etc. when someone enters with intent to steal … etc. …) Thanks for helping clarify further.