West Seattle Crime Watch: Metal-theft suspect alert

| Crime | West Seattle news

Caught & confronted a metal thief heading south in the alleys around Brandon & Fauntleroy. Asked him if he had permission to take the things he was taking. He said no. We told him to put it back, because he was stealing. Called the police immediately & reported it.

Read on for the description of the man KC confronted, and more details on the incident:

KC continues:

Older blue noisy pickup truck with side rails, white male, 6 foot tall, long dark wavy hair, baseball cap, navy blue long sleeve shirt & blue jeans. Had another man with him but could not see him. Pickup truck was filled with BBQs, planters, & new looking chain link fence gates among other things.

The scary thing is that there is no way this guy could have seen the items he was trying to steal just by casually driving down the alleyway. They were tucked into a cubbyhole on the side of the building behind parked cars. He knew exactly what he was going after. He was in there and back out with an armload of stuff within seconds. He most certainly had been here looking around the property within the last 48 hours as those things were not there prior to that. It looked as though he had been scavenging the neighborhood for metal while people are away at work, as his truck was full of stuff.

The police said that they would send a unit out to investigate the area.

Mike April 22, 2009 (4:16 pm)

Sounds like it’s time for me to hook up the car battery to the BBQ. Touch it and complete the circuit! Yay for science!

B-squared April 22, 2009 (4:55 pm)

i like your thinking, mike;)

J April 22, 2009 (6:11 pm)

Hmm. Can you describe pickup or person in any more detail?

mjoans April 22, 2009 (8:41 pm)

I saw these guys in the north Admiral area, they were just entering into the alley between 45th and 46th. I thought it was strange but they were not stopped when I saw them. They certainly appeared to not have a care in the world. Pretty bold if this is what they were up to…

KC April 22, 2009 (9:28 pm)

I’m the one who called this one in, so I’ll fill in the blanks a bit more here.

I first noticed the truck parked out back of my building (there is an alleyway that runs parallel to Fauntleroy there) due to the loudness of the engine or muffler.

The truck, it was an older possibly mid 1980’s American truck. Not one of the smaller ones. It was dullish blue, had some then metal trim down the side and had some “railings” on each side of the bed (the kind of thing that goes down in the holes that are in the top of the sides of the bed to make it easier to carry taller loads). It was not in perfect condition, I’d go so far as to say it was on the verge of being described as a “beater”. I could not get a look at the license plate due to a parked car blocking my view. (I was inside my building)

I saw the man get out and head straight for the cubby on the side of the building and within no more than 5 seconds he was walking out with the armload of metal items. These were placed there day before yesterday, and as I said before there is no way that you can see this cubby from the alleyway, he most certainly scouted that area. He knew what he was after, where to go to get it and he went walking away very hurriedly.

Okay so description of the man.
About 6′ tall. Probably about 40-45 years old. Slender build I’d say between 155-165 pounds. Slight amount of scruff on his face. Longer, thinner face. Dark wavy hair, right about to the tops of his shoulders wearing a baseball cap. He was dressed in a long sleeved dark blue shirt, wore blue jeans, but I could not see his shoes due to the car that was parked blocking my view.

There was another man in the passenger seat of his truck, but I could not at all get a look at him or describe him in any detail as he stayed int he truck and I only saw his silhouette through the back window. That’s is also when I noticed all the other very odd items in the back of his truck.

I have never seen this guy around here before and I knew that he did not have permission to remove those items, so I opened the window and I yelled “Hey, whose permission do you have for that stuff in your hands?” He replied, “No one.” I said “Put it back, your stealing.” He said, with a very agitated voice “Well, it’s just metal. It’s just sitting there.” I said “Your stealing put it back now” and I already had my phone in my hands. He saw the phone and he went and put the stuff back really fast.

I watched him get in his truck and he made a somewhat rude gesture towards me as he drove off.

I called 911, they took the description and I reported what went down and the confrontation. They took my name/info and asked me what direction he was heading. He was heading South down the alleyway. 911 then told me that they would be sending a patrol car out to check the area.

The alarming thing to me about all of this is that this guy is walking on to concealed areas of private property to lift what he wants. If he’s done it to us then he is obviously going around the neighborhood and doing it to others. His truck was loaded with a menagerie of different metal pieces. Some looked like legitimate scrap, but BBQs, newer looking chain link entry gates (the smaller ones like you see in many front yards) plant stands, and shelves.

I hope that the additional information helps out. I did not receive a case number from the police. I will call the precinct tomorrow to see if I can get one and I’ll let the good folks here at WSB know so they can pass it along to the rest of the neighborhood, like they do so well.

Meghan April 23, 2009 (7:55 am)

At least he’s an honest thief! :-)

BanjoC April 23, 2009 (8:17 am)

My wife and I saw (or rather, heard) these characters in our alley the night of 4/21 at around 6:30PM (46th Ave SW between walker and college). We thought it suspicious, but they were gone before we had an opportunity to investigate further. The truck is VERY loud even at an idle – low rumbling.

gw April 23, 2009 (1:58 pm)

Mike- if you want to subject the thief to a mild tingle as a deterrant, a car battery would do the trick. -think electric fence….

Seriously- thanks for the heads up everyone. It’s not the worst of our problems, but ignoring minor theft like this sends the wrong message.

Also, see where $500K of your hard earned state tax $$ went:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/DDF7ADBA-BC34-4DDB-BECD-382373C41AC3/44928/WireTheftPosterStatewideTotal.pdf

Oh, and, next time you’re out for a walk, look for the 1/4″ bare copper ground wire that is supposed to run down each power pole. I’ll bet the first 6′-7′ are missing…..

J April 23, 2009 (3:09 pm)

KC, do you have that case number?

WSB April 23, 2009 (3:13 pm)

KC was last heard from going through quite a lot just to get through to an actual person – then reported getting through to a very nice actual police person – so I’m sure a report will be forthcoming – TR

J April 23, 2009 (3:29 pm)

My goodness! It sure is hard to get information to the police!

I have tried the following to give some information that might be relevant to this to the police. Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

1. I called the non-emergency number. None of the choices seemed to fit, so

2. I called the Southwest Precinct number (from the menu on the non-emergency number). The very polite officer who answered suggested I call the non-emergency number, and told me which menu choices to follow. This got me to a receptionist, who connected me to

3. an officer. The officer asked for more information about why I was calling, and after I’d explained, told me I should call the Southwest Precinct, at 233-2326. That’s a different number than I’d called before, so I tried it, and got

4. A “We’re sorry, you’ve reached a number that has been disconnected” message.

Now what?

Fish April 23, 2009 (11:08 pm)

These guys just came down my ally on Tuesday the 22nd which is located at 32nd & Kenyon, asked if they could take a wood screen door, when I went and looked what they were up to they were pulling it apart for the metal…here is the kicker I remember the license plate of the truck discribed above as it is the same people.
2 guys in a blue truck which is a beater with side rails

WA – B39914K

J April 24, 2009 (4:17 pm)

Ah–that’s not the noisy, dull blue beater truck with side rails I was thinking of–good!

KC May 1, 2009 (11:46 am)

Oh geez, sorry about not coming back and updating. I popped a message back over to WSB via email that might not have gone through. Here’s the copy/paste from that message I sent to them:

Here is an update for you on the metal thief suspect case.
Since he put my items back, they did not send an officer to my place to take a report. They did send a patrol car to the area, the unit patrolled the area and surrounding areas for about 30 minutes before reporting that no further action could be taken. This means that either they could not find the suspect or that the man was legit. (as I know for fact that the man was not legit and was attempting to steal items from my place, I am guessing that it means they could not find him is more likely)

They did provide me with an Event Number #7423, this number corresponds with a request for an increased watch patrol of the area that the officer I just spoke with put in today.
If anyone has tips and wants to report in, they can reference the Event Number #7423. They can also mention that it is a tip following up on the 911 call made at 2:09pm on 4/22, but they should just be fine (from my understanding) referencing the Event Number.

I also read to the Officer the post following my post regarding seeing these men in the area on 4/21 and the area. So that is also reported along with this Event Number.

I hope this helps out.

J, I went through the exact same thing trying to get a human being to speak with. It took me close to an hour and the majority of that time was spent on hold. It’s a sad state of things when we are all trying to watch out for our neighborhoods and we can’t even do something as simple as call it in without getting the run around.

I will say, to the Officer’s credit, when I did finally reach someone who could help he went above and beyond to get all the information together and issue appropriate measures at that point.

The failing was me not demanding to have an officer come out to make a report right after it happened, honestly, I thought that when you made a 911 call they automatically have your information and send Officers out to take a report. Apparently, you have to ask the 911 Officer to send someone out.

The second part of the fail is on the 911 Operator. She did not ask for my address, nor any information. I had to ask her to take down the description of the man and the truck. The only information she directly asked me for was my name, all the rest I had to give her of my own accord.

Not sure if that is normal (I don’t make it a habit of calling 911) but I would highly suggest that anyone making a 911 call not wait for the 911 Operator to ask you to give them information, just volunteer it freely and give them as much information as you can. It was all the additional information that I volunteered to the 911 Operator that helped the Officer later who issued the extra patrols and the event number.

sam May 1, 2009 (12:15 pm)

KC- I’d commend you on your persistence in addressing this.
I’ve had the same run-around that KC and J have had- in trying to report to the ‘non-emergency’ number.
we went that route one time to report a neighbor’s wild party in which their partyers were going up and down the street, with passengers riding on top of the car (an SUV- not IN the car), dancing, with beer bottles in hand.

we didn’t call 911, but tried the other number. that went no-where fast, every time we went through the menu choices, we ended up at a dead end.

Sorry, comment time is over.