Two West Seattle Crime Watch updates for you right now: First, a followup on yesterday’s arrest of the woman accused of using stolen credit cards for $2,000 worth of purchases at local businesses. Southwest Precinct Officer Brian Ballew tells WSB that the item involved in the biggest of those purchases — a $700 fountain from West Seattle Nursery (WSB sponsor) — has been returned to the nursery today. The 53-year-old woman was booked into jail last night; as for how she got caught — Officer Ballew says she had pre-purchased some items at a local business, and before she returned for them yesterday, they and police had matched her to the investigation. Meantime, in separate Crime Watch news, we just got word of another break-in with the “method of entry” involving a BB gun – for those details and what police are saying about this apparent burglary wave, read on:

First, this came in from a “Highland Park neighbor”:

Our neighbors experienced a break-in yesterday on the 9000 block of 13th Avenue SW sometime between 11:30am and 1:30pm. The perpetrators must have been watching because the break-in occurred while our neighbor went to the grocery store. They used a bb-gun to break a rear window and entered through the back door. The house was ransacked. Several items were stolen, including their wedding rings.

Our block has experienced a higher than number of car prowls, break-ins, and petty vandalism over the past three months than ususal.

We’re not sure if this is related, but last Friday afternoon another neighbor observed a group of four males and a female (13 – 15 years old, Caucasian, medium builds, dark clothing) knocking on doors up and down the street. They were pushing a lawnmower and carrying a “Budweiser” beer sign. It did not appear that they were looking for work mowing lawns based on their clothing and behavior.

We suggest that folks be on the lookout for this group.

Given we’ve had other similar reports recently (see the links from the WSB Crime Watch page), we subsequently checked with Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct. He says, “We have some strong leads that we are following up on. Sgt. (Jeff) Durden’s detectives and patrol are tag-teaming this closely.”