Before we get to the latest highlights of reports from the Southwest Precinct, we wanted to mention you have two chances today to hear from Captain Joe Kessler, who has been running the SWP for more than two months now (we first caught up with him on his first day in the office, April 9th): At 2 pm today, he and other SW Precinct leaders will be at City Hall downtown to brief the City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services, and Education Committee on crime trends and other issues/achievements in our area; you can watch live on the Seattle Channel (on-air or online), and we’ll be there to cover it, too. Then tonight at 7 pm, Capt. Kessler will be at the monthly West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting — which always includes an all-star lineup of local police leaders, but he hasn’t had a chance to join them yet. This is also the monthly meeting where you can come ask police about any concerns in your neighborhood; a new name likely will be chosen before the night’s out, too (here’s our report on previous suggestions); you can see the agenda here — including a list of phone numbers you might want to keep handy for neighborhood nuisances as well as crime-related problems. Now, on to a few notable incidents from reports processed over the last several days (there’s often a day or more of lag time, so this doesn’t include incidents from most of Sunday, or Monday), including two scam reports and the latest home/car break-ins:

RESERVATION-RELATED FRAUD? A West Seattle resident who had made reservations with an Eastern Washington motel for last Friday night told police that might have something to do with a case of fraud involving her bank account. Her bank called to confirm a laptop purchase made with a national electronics retailer using that account number – she said she hadn’t done it, and contacted the retailer, who had the purchase scheduled for delivery on the date the woman was scheduled to be out of town. They managed to stop the delivery.

BILKED ONLINE: A deaf West Seattle man told police, with the help of a sign-language translator, that his bank account had more than $800 in unauthorized PayPal withdrawals, apparently after he made a donation to a website that covers issues involving hearing-impaired people; he had corresponded with its operator online for some time.

TEENS ATTACK CHILD: An 11-year-old boy told police that he was attacked twice on June 9th by three teenagers at and near Southwest Community Center – the first time, one of them pushed him off his bike after asking if he could have the bike and being told “no”; the second time, the three teens came up to the victim as he was riding home from the center and the same one pushed him off his bike again. He suffered knee and forehead scrapes, and medics were called to treat him.

MYSTERY HARASSMENT: A woman reported the afternoon of June 9th that someone has put dog waste on the hood of her car in the 3900 block of SW Southern three times in the past three months. She says she has two dogs but they never go off-leash, and she has no idea why anyone would do this.

RESIDENT SCARES OFF BURGLAR: A man was home in the 8800 block of 35th SW when somebody tried to break in around 10:30 pm last Thursday. He heard the sound of a screen being lifted off a bedroom window, then went into the room and yelled at the person he saw outside, who promptly took off. The suspect is described as a black male around 6 feet tall, teens to early 20s, thin, wearing a green hat, loose-fitting shirt and blue jeans. Police searched the area but couldn’t find him.

BURGLARY WITH A CLUE: A house was broken into in the 3800 block of 53rd SW last Thursday between 8:30 am and 5 pm. The culprit(s) left behind one clue – a brown cottom gardening glove. The report says they got in by cutting through the kitchen window screen and opening the unlocked window, then reaching around to open a door. The victim told police they took coins.

ONE NIGHT, ONE NEIGHBORHOOD, TWO TRUCK BREAK-INS: Two duffel bags full of firefighter gear were stolen from a pickup truck in the 4800 block of 25th SW sometime between 6 pm June 8 and 5:15 am June 9; a separate report says that between 9 pm June 8 and 8:30 am June 9th, in the 4800 block of 26th SW, a laptop and power inverter were stolen from a pickup truck.

ANOTHER VEHICLE BROKEN INTO: In the 5300 block of SW Dakota, between 11 pm June 10 and 7 am June 11, someone broke into a car and stole stereo equipment, two iPods, a jacket, and a wallet.

CAR BREAK-IN WITHOUT THEFT: Between 3 pm Saturday and 12:30 am Sunday, in the 5400 block of 23rd SW, somebody broke into a car; its owner said the car clearly had been “rummaged through,” according to the police report, but nothing was missing.

CAR VANDALISM: Between 11:30 pm Friday and 9:45 am Saturday, in the 5300 block of SW Dakota, the rear window of a vehicle was shattered, without any evidence of why, by whom, or how.

TRIMMING TROUBLE: In the 8600 block of 32nd SW around 3 pm Friday, a woman called police to say her neighbor had trimmed some of her trees “close to the sidewalk,” as the report put it. The officer said it’s a “civil matter” but the woman insisted a report be written up.

RIFLE, BOW, ARROWS TURNED IN: A man showed up at the Southwest Precinct on June 9th with a rifle, bow, and arrows, saying they belonged to the husband of a friend who just found the items now, years after her husband killed himself. Police asked for more information on that friend but the person who turned the items in said they didn’t have that info. The items were recorded as “found property.”

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 linked from the Southwest Precinct’s Crime Prevention page. Previous WSB police-report coverage is archived on our Crime Watch page.