22 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Sunset (North Admiral) burglary"

• MAS March 16, 2008 (12:10 pm)

  From the original post:

  “we all want to be careful not to assume all door-to-door solicitors are potential burglars casing our homes”

  Actually, it is unwise to assume otherwise. If you reword this slightly to “we all want to be careful to assume all door-to-door solicitors are potentially burglars casing our homes” it describes the situation exactly.

  The question is, how should that change our behavior. When they produce a valid solicitors license, will you write down the number so you can call it into question when you burglarized later? If they don’t have a solicitors license do you snap a picture of them and immediately call the police? Do you stay home with the shotgun across your lap for the next few days just in case?

  We are way past the days when it was marginally safe to buy stuff from people that come to your door unsolicited. Is door-to-door solicitation such an important part of our economy that we can’t just eliminate such an unsafe practice?

  In the best possible scenario, with a legitimate vendor it’s still a stranger knocking on your door with the expectation that you will pull out your wallet and either hand them cash, a washable check with your valid signature or a credit card number. None of those sound like a great idea to me.

  MAS

• WSB March 16, 2008 (1:03 pm)

  We personally don’t open our door to anyone unless it is someone we personally know very well (and none of them would tend to show up unannounced). Not even the precinct officer who was just doorbelling to remind us all about the caucus (he lives three doors down, I figured out later, but we’d never met him). I would not dream of knocking on the door of anyone who wasn’t expecting me, unless it was an emergency. However, in this case, I don’t want to demonize an entire profession, much as I don’t want to assume every person walking toward me on the street is going to pull out a gun and shoot me just because so few people walk any more that the likelihood of that passerby being a crook is higher … We’re pretty reclusive but we considered ourselves somewhat anomalous in that. Has it really come to the point where none of us can/should answer our doors or phones? Should we all just be putting up locked electrified gates?

• Yes~ March 16, 2008 (2:54 pm)

  ~ I don’t want to demonize an entire profession,..~
  …WSB, you are suffering from acute political correctness. It is possible to recover but you will have to stop apologizing for stupid stuff AND start calling things what they are.

  ~~ Has it really come to the point where none of us can/should answer our doors or phones? ~~
  …Yes. But that does *not* mean that guns, tasers and neighbors can’t be combined into an effective counter-measure against thugs.

  ~~~Should we all just be putting up locked electrified gates? ~~~
  No. Guns for the pit bulls or any other creature that would do us mortal harm and tasers for well, the same. Save the electricity for “the chair” cuz that is another deterrent that merits use for those that can only do harm.
  .

  Some nutjob comes through our door / window before 911 does the trick is going out in a bag.
  We open the door for all solicitors (after checking the view) and take their picture first thing. Then, if they still want to talk, we *politely* say no thank you. We’ve helped catch a burglar that nailed the neighbor’s house and we are prepared in case 911 has their hands full elsewhere(again).
  .

  Yes, I’m serious.

• WSB March 16, 2008 (3:00 pm)

  I have no doubt.

• changingtimes March 16, 2008 (3:19 pm)

  this is why you know buy your girlscout cookies in the safeway parking lot….

• Gina March 16, 2008 (5:44 pm)

  How did the burglar get into the second story window? I often see people leaving ladders out in their yards- not blaming the victim- just wondering because I have second story windows. Also, I was at Home Depot today and saw a window lock that attaches to the the window frame or sill. You drill through the sill or frame and bolt or screw the lock down. There is a key on the top that you remove when the window is locked. You can partially open the window for ventilation when the lock is installed. I believe this lock would prevent the burglar from reaching in and sliding the window open after they’ve broken it. Families would need to figure these type of locks into their fire escape plans or I guess maybe just use them when no one is at home. They make these locks for sliding glass doors as well.

• jissy March 16, 2008 (5:45 pm)

  Yes — I REALLY like that idea of taking everyone’s pictures… genius. We just put in a new glass front door which doesn’t seem so wise after reading about all these recent events, but it will allow an excellent picture.

• miws March 16, 2008 (6:10 pm)

  jissy, Does your new front door have a double cylinder deadbolt lock? (Needs a key to lock/unlock it from the inside as well as the outside) If not, a burglar would just need to bust the window and reach through to unlock the door.

  .

  The disadvantage to that, is if the door would be the primary escape route during a fire. I’ve heard it suggested in that case, that a key be kept in the lock when the house is occupied, to ensure a quick escape. That, of course, would defeat the security purpose of the lock, it would be as easy for a burglar to unlock it, as if it were a single cylinder lock.

  .

  I don’t recall hearing any suggestions in that case, but guess that a key be hung near the door within reach of anyone that would need to escape, but out of reach of the burglar after smashing the window. Perhaps a key at each bedside with something attached to easily find and grab? Keeping in mind the adrenalin rush anyone in the situation would be experiencing during a time like this, plus the fact that due to smoke and/or darkness, vision will be impaired.

  .

  Not trying to scare ya! Just hoping theis helps! :)

  .

  Mike

• SomeGuy March 16, 2008 (7:55 pm)

  I think someone else asked this question in the comments section on a previous “burglary of the day” post, but I have been wondering…
  .
  Are burglaries really increasing in WS? Or are we just hearing about them much more frequently via the magic of the inter-web more than we used to?
  .
  I wonder if the local precinct would hazard a guess based on their stats, or even just from the officers who patrol our streets day in and day out?

• Anon due to info in comment - don't need another burglary. March 16, 2008 (10:13 pm)

  miws,
  We leave a key in our double-deadbolt when we’re home. However, we slide the key slightly out of the lock, and are in the habit of pushing it in before attempting to turn. It took some time to get used to it, but it does work. These are the keys we ALWAYS take with us when we leave, so no chance of them being in the door when we’re not home.

• WSB March 16, 2008 (11:45 pm)

  SomeGuy, we reported the annual crime stats for WS (thru 2007) earlier this year with a helpful fellow website operator who crunched our numbers. Burglary is broken out (pun not intended) as well as other categories:
  https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=5245

  (this is linked from the Crime Watch page btw)

• Pelicans March 16, 2008 (11:51 pm)

  Bravo to ‘Yes.”

  Re: Burglary. According to the latest edition of the Alki News Beacon, Lt. Steven Paulsen of SPD says, “Alki has been quiet of late.” and “police have made a large number of burglary arrests [over 15 in the last month] in West Seattle. Police will continue with their creative staffing and time schedules.”

  Either the editor of the paper or Lt. Paulsen don’t disclose if burglaries have increased or decreased. Kind of useful info, don’t you think? And what about the timing?

  Is it me, or do most of the burglaries in the Southwest Precinct news take place in the morning hours? What are the trends? Maybe they cover that on the SPD website, but it would be nice to just hear the hard news. Increase or decrease, and what are the profiles of the suspects/crimes/targets? Come on, guys!

• Pelicans March 17, 2008 (12:07 am)

  WSB and Readers:
  After reading Lt. Paulsen’s info of 14 March at 7pm, I would be remiss is saying I didn’t appreciate all SPD’s efforts. Thank you all of you for your efforts. What we lose may seem like small potatoes to you in the big scheme of things, but our peace of mind and safety are clearly your priorites and we all are very grateful for your day to day hard work. Sometimes it may see thankless, but when you catch someone who’s committed even just a misdemeanor against someone, it is wonderful. We are thankful that we have you.

• WSB March 17, 2008 (12:09 am)

  Pel, with due respect to Cami, the newest edition of the ANB went to press before this busy last week of burglaries AND arrests (I know because I wrote something for it) — although what you are quoting sounds like something from a couple months ago. I review reports at the precinct at least a couple times per week and they do ebb and flow, but as reported in at least one post within the past few days here, there has definitely been a recent wave of daytime burglaries. I was scheduled to get an update from one of the detectives at the precinct on Friday afternoon — then, as reported here, they got busy with some arrests. I hope to speak with him tomorrow and will report back here with whatever I find out. As for a suspect profile – in most cases there are no witnesses, so that’s pretty tough to provide.

• Pelicans March 17, 2008 (12:33 am)

  WSB,
  Thanks for the reply. It would be nice, to say nothing of green if the Alki News Beacon could be issued via e-mail, possibly as a link on your site. Maybe more often than it is now, say every two weeks or so. Things happen so quickly now. We turn to your site for the interaction of citizens and government/law enforcement when we can’t attend or keep track of the meetings.
  Issuing the ANB by e-mail would save $ and get the word out double-fast, don’t you think?

• WSB March 17, 2008 (12:41 am)

  It is posted as a PDF on alkinews.com —
  http://alkinews.com/doc/currentbeacon.pdf
  and of course as I’m sure you know they just switched to postal-mail delivery, which at least saves the fuel of the people who used to drive it around! As for the publication schedule, certainly worth feedback to the ACC, but from what I know of it, it’s an all-volunteer operation and I don’t know that they have the firepower to produce something that often. Next ACC meeting is this Thursday night BTW (we’ll be there).

• Gina March 17, 2008 (8:42 am)

  There was a reality show on with a former burgular that went to a different home every weeek, and showed how easy it was to break-in, where the weak points were. The main point was the longer it took to get into a house, the more likely it was that he would go elsewhere.

  I don’t think a residential second story window would present that much of a problem for access. Many buildings are tagged with grafitti in impossible (to us) to access places.

  Lawn furniture makes a good makeshift booster, garbage cans flipped over. Ladders would not be needed.

• Kayleigh March 17, 2008 (2:55 pm)

  I don’t answer the door unless it’s someone I know; no exceptions. I don’t owe door-to-door salespeople or telemarketers anything. They’re stepping into my life uninvited…they’re lucky if they get common courtesy. ;-)

  –Kayleigh, who really is a nice person, just not so much as of late.

• snowlion March 17, 2008 (5:34 pm)

  Kayleigh; amen, sistah!

  Actually, I find it interesting that this should be the ruse that is cropping up; in this day of the internet, where you can subscribe to anything you want, why bother with some jerk going door-to-door? I’m frankly surprised when I see that sort of behavior out of anyone other than trick-or-treaters. If I want what you’re selling, I can find it online for much cheaper and most likely from a far more reliable source.

  All said, I do appreciate having this blog here, and plan on alerting all of my neighbors about this behavior – it happened to us, it can happen to anyone, and they might not know about WSB. I plan on telling them.

• Jake March 17, 2008 (7:52 pm)

  Since we posted a “No Soliciters” sign 2 years ago in plain site near our front door we’ve had only 1 solicitation, and when they saw the sign they apologized. Of course it helps that we established a tight-knit block watch on our block as well. Getting everyone to turn out for “Neighborhood Night Out” on the 1st Tuesday in August has really helped our block become much safer.

• Jake March 17, 2008 (8:10 pm)

  Was this the stately historical manor home? We walked our dog past the house this evening and noted broken windows on the 1st & 2nd floors of one side of the house. If it was that’s one expensive break-in, I hope they catch the culprits and bill them for the historically accurate restoration.

• KMS March 20, 2008 (9:23 am)

  One thing that has been left out of the initial post regarding the burglary is that there was a white van seen in the neighborhood for a couple days prior to the Break in on Sunset. The van was made to blend in as if it were a contractor or cleaning/cable service. It was not a larger type cargo van like a ford Econoline. rather, it was more like a minivan. There are a lot of construction projects going up on Sunset right now, so people may not have noticed the vehicle. However, I urge you all to take notice of the companies and contractors being hired by your neighbors, and even talk to them about which ones they have hired! A similar incident happened down on beach drive a few months back.

Sorry, comment time is over.