WS crime watch: Citizen calls help police solve more burglaries
One of the police reports we reviewed at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct late today got even better with some added information forwarded by Lt. Steve Paulsen – 
turns out that one arrest following a gas-station break-in early yesterday helped detectives solve 9 burglaries in all. It all started just before 5 am Thursday, with calls to police reporting someone smashing in the front door of the Chevron station at 35th and Holden. The callers gave police excellent information — describing the suspect and his car, and which way he headed after he took off. An officer spotted the car, a white T-Bird with a sunroof, at 35th and Morgan, and pulled it over in the 7100 block of Delridge. The car’s registered owner gave police permission to search its trunk, where officers found items including 33 unopened packages of cigarettes. One of the detectives who questioned the suspect, Detective Donald Henderson, picks up the story from there, in an e-mail forwarded to WSB by Lt. Paulsen:
A consent to search was obtained from the registered owner. Stolen Property and Burglary Tools were recovered, and placed into evidence. Detectives were able to solve eight commercial burglary cases in West Seattle, and one from North Seattle. Well done to West Seattle Citizens for getting involved, and reporting suspicious activity to 9-1-1.
Lt. Paulsen adds, “This all began with a citizen call and one of our newer police officers on the morning watch (Officer Melissa Wengard). Great example of the public calling in things that don’t look right!” You may recall another WSB report three weeks ago about another stack of burglary cases solved by the Southwest Precinct team. Meantime, here are half a dozen more new and noteworthy West Seattle police reports:Read More
Reader report: Antique shop “closed for remodeling”
Thanks to Michelle for sending the photo and the tip. What’s on that sign is all the info we have – we just tried calling but no answer and no recorded message. (If you’re not familiar with Admiralty House, it’s at 2141 California in North Admiral.)
First ex-Huling employee sentencing: 9 months
Just back from King County Superior Court, where former Huling Bros. salesperson Paul Rimbey 
was sentenced less than an hour ago for 1st-degree theft, after a jury found him guilty last month for his role in a scheme to steal from a mentally unstable dealership customer. His lawyer wanted the basic maximum, 3 months; the prosecutor asked for 18 months; the judge made it 9 months, with work-release provisions so Rimbey can continue at the fulltime job he says he just finally got after a year of trying to find work. He cried while pleading for leniency, and supporters/relatives in the courtroom cried too. 2:31 PM UPDATE: Here’s our full report:Read More
Friday mid-morning miscellany
COYOTE REPORT: Just in from Katherine – “WOW! Heard maybe 3 coyotes howling and crying early this morning from Pelly Place Natural Area, which is near Lowman Beach Park.” (ADDED 10:30 PM, Alex reports a coyote trying to cross California SW tonight near SW Willow; traffic spooked it, he said, and it retreated back westbound onto Willow.)
TREE TAKEDOWN: No doubt this will be a big weekend for taking down the Christmas tree. In addition to the tree-recycling/disposal info we featured in this post-Christmas report, we also have more details about a youth group’s treecycling fundraiser on Saturday: Local Rainbow Girls are taking trees 10 am-2 pm tomorrow at the Alki Masonic Hall (4736 40th; map here) for a $5 donation; the trees will be mulched.
SCHOOL-TOUR TIME: Some West Seattle private schools are already back in post-winter-break session; public schools return Monday. At both private and public schools, tour and open-house time is kicking into high gear, because it’s application season for the ’08-’09 school year (already!). We are adding tour and open-house info to the WSB Events page as fast as we find/receive it; please let us know what’s up at your school. More to come on school-decision season – including a spotlight on some multischool events including the West Seattle Middle School Information Night (with reps from private and public middle schools around WS) at Gatewood Elementary next Thursday.
Be on the lookout – another “egg attack” report
Just a few days ago, we published a WSB Reader Report about a car hit with eggs, and 2 other people added in the comments that they’d seen or experienced something similar. We’re listening to the police/fire scanner as usual during late-night watch right now, and just heard police responding to another report of “those eggers,” this time at California and Fauntleroy. If you see anything going on, remember, call 911. Vandalism is a crime.
Late-night followup: Criminal case status for ex-Huling trio
Tonight’s WSB late-night followup — where things stand for three ex-Huling Bros. dealership employees arrested a year ago and accused of stealing from a mentally unstable customer in 2006. The trial date for two of them, Adrian Dillard and Ted Coxwell, has been postponed several times; the most recent date on record was today, so we dropped by the King County Courthouse downtown, only to find out their lawyers were filing a motion to postpone it again. We’ll let you know when a new date is set. (Dillard bailed out of jail last January, but Coxwell is still listed in custody on the King County Jail Register.) Meanwhile, sentencing is scheduled tomorrow — provided no last-minute postponement happens here too — for Paul Rimbey, the first of the suspects to go to trial; a King County Superior Court jury found him guilty of theft in mid-November, and he is expected to face at least three months in jail.
Never mind Iowa – OUR caucuses are just weeks away
We’ll have plenty to talk about regarding local and state election issues in the months to come, but with the Iowa caucuses tonight, the presidential race is front and center – so we’re seizing the moment to remind you again that caucuses in our state are just weeks away, on February 9. We took a closer look in this report just before the holidays, with a lot of help from the 34th District Democrats. Since then, the King County Republicans have finally put some information online — their site now has a caucus locator for local Republicans. Local Democrats can locate their caucus site from the 34th DD caucus-info page — which lists all district Democratic caucus sites (here) next to the names of the sites’ PCOs (precinct committee officers) — ADDED FRIDAY, THANKS TO WSB-ERS: to get your precinct number, go here. When we checked today with 34th DD chair Ivan Weiss for any additional advice for would-be participants, he suggested, “They should contact their PCOs if they want to volunteer to help. For example, each precinct will need, in addition to the PCO or convener, a tally clerk (top priority) and a secretary to take the caucus minutes. Also we will need volunteers to move tables and chairs around, and to staff the sign-in tables. Any voter in the 34th District can contact me any time by e-mail or phone if they need to find what precinct they are in, or for any other thing, no matter how trivial. I mean that seriously. I am set up to help them, and usually can answer their questions within minutes.” Ivan’s contact info is here; 34th District Republican contact info is here.
Traffic alert: Roxbury/Delridge accident
Police are on the scene of an accident that’s causing some traffic trouble if you are trying to turn northbound on Delridge from westbound on Roxbury. Doesn’t look too major; we’re just alerting you to avoid the area (map).
Also from the city: Official park-meeting announcements
All sorts of West Seattle stuff on the city’s press-release site today. We first told you last Friday (with a lively discussion erupting afterward, of course) about the public meetings coming up later this month for the future parks at Morgan Junction and Myrtle Street Reservoir; the official city press releases are out today (Morgan Junction 1/15 meeting here, Myrtle 1/22 meeting here) so we’re mentioning them again in case you missed the news during the holiday crunch.
Comments are back — thanks for your patience
And thanks again to our fabulous tech consultant Stuart Maxwell for troubleshooting: Long story short, because it includes some behind-the-curtain stuff you should know — The world of “spam” online doesn’t just affect your inbox; it also affects websites like ours that accept comments. Automated programs are out there relentlessly patrolling for places to try to post fake comments with addresses for porn sites, pharma sites, things like that. There’s an excellent spam-fighting program called Akismet that we and many other sites use, and it catches literally thousands of spam comments per day, on WSB alone. (Sometimes it accidentally nets bonafide comments too, so if a comment you post never turns up, that may be what happened.) According to what Stuart found out, Akismet had a glitch very early this morning, so the spam comments were flooding in, and the site-hosting company disabled the function till the problem could be solved. All’s well now, the old comments are back, and you can post new ones too. Sorry for the snag!
No midwinter hibernation going on in The Junction — the 
Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth is still the next route scheduled to get it … and still no date set; after 
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