Or should we say, cases and casings … Just spent some time on the phone with Detective Nick Bauer from the Southwest Precinct, and he provided updates on some recent cases reported here, as well as a new one for which police could use your eyes and ears:
First, the Admiral casings from last night. No arrests so far, and no specific information linking them to flyer distribution or anything else. Detective Bauer notes that it’s a textbook case of casing, though — knock on the door, if no one seems to be home, go around and look for a way to break in.
He’s also fairly sure that the “unusual doorknocker” from a week ago (first report here, followup here, second followup here) was a would-be burglar as well; he says now that people are fairly skeptical about solicitations for, say, magazine subscriptions, would-be burglars have to come up with some other excuse if and when you answer the door.
One recent burglary at 57th and Charlestown, he says, was preceded by someone claiming they were selling candy door-to-door. And that burglary, he says, was linked to the two reported in two reader reports last week — the second of which resulted in two arrests, thanks to alert neighbors calling 911 — now two juvenile suspects are in custody, according to Detective Bauer, suspected of at least three burglaries in West Seattle, and one in Seatac that one of the suspects said he’d been involved with earlier on the day of the arrests.
Another group of teenagers may be on the loose, though; he says police got a call last Saturday about three African-American boys, 16 or 17, bragging loudly on a bus that they had been breaking into places and had “hit the mother lode.” They got off the bus on Avalon and officers couldn’t find them, but Detective Bauer says they’d love to hear from anyone else who overhears burglary brags like that — call 911 when you hear or see something suspicious.
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