Toplines from West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting

At the Southwest Precinct for the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting (which has the biggest crowd we’ve seen in a long time, more than 30 people):


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Beth Gappert, precinct liaison for the City Attorney’s Office, says the owner of the business best known as “the vacuum shop” in the 5200 block of Delridge (Google Street View image above) has pleaded guilty to Seattle Municipal Code violations, as the result of an ongoing investigation involving stolen goods. No jail time at this point – a “deferred sentence” – but she says he is under “tight scrutiny.” (Added 8:09 pm: Talked to Gappert after the meeting – the Municipal Code violations included “engaging in business without a used-goods license” and “failure to retain property for 30 days” – she explains that businesses dealing in used goods are supposed to hold onto them for that long before turning around and selling them.)

Also so far tonight, Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden has had two announcements of note: First, a crackdown on suspicious activity in Westcrest Park (he says community activists and Parks crews will be there this Thursday to do some shrubbery trimming to cut down on the hiding places); he also says that Community Police Team officer Kevin McDaniel has added more duties – he is now also responsible for the three major Seattle Housing Authority apartment buildings in West Seattle.

Plus: Sgt. Durden had a few extra notes from last week’s burglary at closed-since-2007 Fairmount Park Elementary — two of the six suspects arrested were adults, and both were booked into jail (the police report from that incident also says there had been two break-ins at the school in the days before that one — nothing significant had been taken but a broken window from those break-ins may have figured into this one).

The Crime Prevention Council also now has its own e-mail address, if you have a question or idea: westseattlecpc@gmail.com

11 Replies to "Toplines from West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting"

  • cjboffoli April 21, 2009 (7:55 pm)

    This event is always interesting. Great coverage.

  • Bushy Nulu April 21, 2009 (7:58 pm)

    “Shrubbery trimming” in Westcrest Park?
    Is that code or something?

  • WSB April 21, 2009 (8:09 pm)

    Hi, Nulu! Long time no hear. Nope, not code – exactly what it says – they’ll be out trimming back some overgrowth etc. – TR

  • sam April 21, 2009 (8:16 pm)

    Shrubbery trimming- sounds good- will they also be patrolling the parking lot ?

    hopefully those guys will have to find another place to ‘meet’

  • WSB April 21, 2009 (8:19 pm)

    Officer Topacio from the Community Police Team has been spending a lot of extra time patrolling the area, according to tonight’s discussion – it was also mentioned that the Highland Park Action Committee’s volunteers had been assisting too – TR

  • mike April 21, 2009 (11:13 pm)

    I don’t get it, I never notice this activity at the park, If they are doing it during the night when no one’s supposed to be there why are we wasting police officers time on something that doesn’t hurt anyone. Anyways they could re-assign the 2-3 traffic police that are always near the entrance during rush hour to that duty. Neither activity makes us safer.

  • MellyMel April 22, 2009 (1:09 am)

    Heh, that guy fixed my vacuum. Did a good job for cheap.

  • The Dude April 22, 2009 (7:01 am)

    MellyMe!
    – Who cares if your vacuum repair was cheap when the guy who did the work is guilty of criminal behavior? Patronizing the place only fuels crime all over WS.

    -Try the Vac Shop at 4th and Lucile near Georgetown. The guy that runs the place is a bit religious for my taste, but the outdoor decor via old vacuum cleaners far outweighs the religiosity. His outdoor decor reminds me of the old Cyclops restaurant on Western Ave with the Jell-O molds that were all over the outside walls. The Vac Shop on 4th certainly beats the stolen goods/crap that are piled up at the Delridge racket.

  • trensuela April 22, 2009 (9:46 am)

    The best was when our doormat was stolen. A couple days after it was stolen it showed up at the vac shop. The guy denied it.

    He owns a mean ankle biter dog, that should say enough.

  • MellyMel April 22, 2009 (1:31 pm)

    Thanks for the tip for future vac needs. Obviously, I didnt know about this guy’s issues. Just that he was kinda a charicature of eastern european immigrant, “Da, I fix,” and seemed nice enough.

  • sam April 22, 2009 (3:32 pm)

    mike-
    the last time I went to Westcrest, it was a weekend day in December. We stopped at Zippy’s for burgers before going to the dog park. we parked in the lot near the trail heads and near the PLAYGROUND. we sat in our cars to finish our hamburgers only to find out we weren’t the only ones ‘hanging out’ in our cars on a nice day.

    of the 12 cars parked there, about half of them had people waiting in the driver seat.

    Needless to say, our family (dog and infant included) did not get any invitations from some of the guys walking around the parking lot to join anyone on a “walk” back into the nice wooded areas.

    that’s why it would be nice to have some sort of patrol in that area, to discourage that sort of thing.

    haven’t people heard of bars? it’s more accepted to pick people up there.

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