Tonight, three reports have come in from people who want to share their stories so you can be more alert and aware — including the case of the stolen “stinky skates” plus an unfortunate reminder to lock up when you’re out doing yard work — read on:

First, Chloe e-mailed:

Car was broken into between 11 PM Weds and 5:30 AM Thurs Oct 23rd at 34th and Dakota (map). Stereo was stolen, plus two gym/skate bags full of $1,700 worth of skate/derby equipment. Hopefully the thieves find that stinky skates are not what they were trying to steal, so we are hoping they will turn up somewhere. 1 blue skate bag, 1 blue gym bag, each with skates, pads, tools etc. SAAAAAAAad.

About half a mile west of there, this happened (the writer wanted to remain anonymous):

Yesterday,between approximately 2:00 pm and 2:30 pm, someone entered my home through an unlocked sliding door, while I was raking leaves in the front. They stole cash and cards from my wallet (out of my purse in the kitchen) and most all of my jewelry (located in the bedroom). My home is located on 39th Ave SW, between SW Dakota and SW Andover (map). How they knew no one was inside, I have no idea. In order to access the sliding door, they would have needed to come up a very open driveway,go around to the side of the house to go up stairs, and be fairly open to view on my deck. This is a heads up to anyone who lives in this area. They had only minutes to steal…how could they know when I would come in?

And then, just as we were getting ready to publish the first two, in came this from Jess:

I thought you & West Seattle Blog might want to know about some home break-ins in the Highland Park neighborhood – my cousin’s house was hit today. He left me a comment on Facebook: “They broke my window and got into the house, we had the house dusted for prints, but it looks like they stole my Mom’s necklaces, my gold and silver chain, my class ring and 3 very old i-pods… we think we were actually part of a crime spree, they found similar breakins around the neighborhood during the last month, and they didn’t take anything cool, just small stuff and sentimental stuff, they left the Wii, DVD players, the camcorders and all the digital cameras (all of which were out in the open), so we kind of figure they were doing it for the thrill of stealing”

Hope these guys are caught soon!