West Seattle Crime Watch: Theft story with a semi-happy ending

Just received from a WSBer who wants to stay anonymous – her story started with a theft that happened literally in an instant in the Admiral District, and ended with help from a Good Samaritan on the other side of West Seattle:

Just wanted to report a really brazen incident that happened this
morning near Lafayette Elementary. After dropping my son off at
Pathfinder on Genessee Hill, I headed northeast to the 2600 block of
Lander, between 44th Avenue SW and California, in hopes of picking up
information about any gymnastics summer camps that the Westside
Gymnasics Academy (2701 California) might be offering. I parked on
the south side of Lafayette at around 9:20 A.M. Since I was planning
on just running up to the front of the business and grabbing a
pamphlet, I walked away from the car with only my keys, leaving my 4
year old daughter strapped in her carseat. I locked the car using my
key fob as I jogged around the corner to grab the brochure. I also
left my purse on the front seat of my car. And my cell phone was
plugged into the charger in the car. There were several other people
walking on the sidewalk, coming and going from Lafayette.

Returning less than 60 seconds later, I saw the front passenger door
of my car wide open, with smashed glass everywhere and heard my
daughter calling out for me. I quickly surmised what had happened and
made sure she was ok. (She was, just shaken up.) Two students had
witnessed what had happened and gave me details as I called 911. A
man had smashed the glass of the passenger window and then run down
the alley with my purse, toward PCC.

When the police arrived, I told them that before parking my car I’d
witnessed a black sedan with dark windows parked in that alleyway. I
had thought the car was wanting to turn (right) onto Lander, which is
one-way in that location. So I motioned to them to go ahead and turn
before I parked. They gestured back quite forcibly to keep driving
(indicating they weren’t ready to turn yet). I thought it was a bit
odd that they were just waiting there, blocking the alley, and it
flipped my “bad vibes” switch. I am sure that these were the
individuals responsible for the break-in and theft, as I’m sure they
witnessed my leaving my car without a purse (and so assumed it was
still inside.)

Thankfully — praise GOD! — they seem to have only been interested
in a quick grab and not doing harm to my daughter (whom they probably
did not know was inside until they smashed the window — we have
tinted windows in our car). Within 15 minutes (before I could call my
bank and credit card companies, since I was talking to the police
during that time), the thieves had driven south down to the Roxbury
Safeway and spent over $100 on gas and groceries. The (fabulous!)
detective that I spoke with, in addition to the great patrol car
officer, said that hopefully we’ll be able to identify the car (and,
potentially, license plate) on the Safeway gas station video feeds.

I just wanted everyone to be aware of this since it was such a brazen
crime in broad daylight in a busy (and generally considered “safe”)
area with lots of kids and parents nearby. Also — I will absolutely
NEVER leave my children in my car unattended again, even for a few
seconds like this. I’ve never (and of course WOULD never) leave them
in a car to go into a store or home or anything. But in the past, I
used to dash out of the car to return library books (in the drop
slots), or to drop mail in a mail box. NEVER AGAIN.

Finally, there is a bit of good news in this report. A couple hours
after this all happened, I received a call from a wonderful man who
lives near 34th and Barton. He had found my purse in the middle of
his street (missing the wallet, though, of course) and then tracked
me down to report it. I’m going to pick it up shortly. West Seattle
rocks. Yay for the good guys.

WSB June 17, 2009 (1:50 pm)

Dear commenters:
.
Advance notice for this one. The report-filer has made it abundantly clear she knows she shouldn’t have done what she did. So please don’t bother with anything that is SOLELY a “boy, that was stupid.”
.
If you have something constructive to offer or to ask, great. But otherwise, pure victim-bashing is right up there, or should we say down there, with insulting/attacking other commenters, and now on the no-no list. Plenty of other free-for-alls out there if you are into that. Thanks!!! TR

breanna43 June 17, 2009 (1:58 pm)

Wow. That’s crazy! Opportunists, I guess. Im so so so glad that the story ended the way it did. Thanks for sharing your lesson…it took courage!

CMP June 17, 2009 (2:11 pm)

No criticism here, I’d probably do the same thing for a quick jaunt out of the car. Glad your purse was found and that your daughter was unharmed…and I hope the detectives catch the morons who did this. Darwin award to them for going to Safeway using a stolen credit card with video cameras around. Smart!

sarelly June 17, 2009 (2:17 pm)

So glad your daughter wasn’t hurt. That is really scary.

Once when my 10 year old was a baby, I’d just put him into his car seat outside our daycare and was walking around to the other side of the car to let my toddler in, when a delivery truck drove past, a gate or something swung off the back, and smashed the entire rear window. Luckily my baby’s car seat had recently been switched to a forward-facing position and the canopy was up – or he would have ended up with a face full of glass.

One time a guy snuck up behind me and tried to steal my purse but I heard his feet on the bricks, I felt him coming. As he was grabbing it, without even thinking I grabbed it right back. I was so angry. He stalked off looking like I’d offended him.

And another time a guy walked up to me and groped me – just grabbed my breast like a melon in the supermarket. Did the same thing to a bunch of other women in the same area – I heard about it because were meeting as a group at the same place that morning.

And then there was the time someone smashed our car window and tried to hotwire the car but the steering wheel was locked and he couldn’t pull away from the curb so he had to get out and run away.

And the time someone broke in, then panicked and ran when our alarm went off.

All but one of these things happened during the day, on busy streets, in plain view of other people both on foot and in cars. Daylight will NOT protect you.

It’s okay if you feel angry and scared for a while. Give yourself time to process. I’m glad there were decent people around to help.

homesweethome June 17, 2009 (2:48 pm)

Its the seemingly safe neighborhoods that are the most prone to such crime of opportunity. I now lock my car when pumping gas if my child is in the car – yes, in Admiral.

jill June 17, 2009 (2:49 pm)

My husband’s car window was smashed in recently during broad daylight at his place of work. When he was getting the window repaired the person at the glass company said she has never seen this many smashed windows (thefts) in Seattle – this is a very common thing these days! Never leave a thing in sight! I’m so glad that no one was hurt in this instance!

add June 17, 2009 (2:58 pm)

This reminds me of a time I was at the Safeway gas station on Roxbury – the woman in front of me said she had just had someone pull up to her passenger side, reach through the open window (it was summer) and grab her purse while she stood on the other side of the car pumping her gas!! The perps tore outta there and I don’t know if they were ever caught. I hope so.

celeste17 June 17, 2009 (3:03 pm)

I can’t tell you how many times I was left in the car when Mom ran into the store to get an item. LOL that was about 40 years ago. Glad everything turned out alright with you and your child. Hope they get the creeps.

Peter June 17, 2009 (3:24 pm)

Did the kid get an ID on the perp? No? Might be an inside job.

Kevin June 17, 2009 (4:09 pm)

Happy ending would mean the crooks behind bars. This just a less-bad ending, with the vermin still on the loose, ready to do it to more cars.

WSB June 17, 2009 (4:12 pm)

Well, sure, but the Good Samaritan aspect is at least somewhat heartening. But you have a good point so I’ll change to semi-happy ending – TR

Minnesota MLS June 17, 2009 (9:25 pm)

Thanks for the story. I’ll have to learn from this one.

@Celeste – My mom used to do that to me as well. Now I’m doing it to my kid. I have to change though.

@Peter – LOL

bridge to somewhere June 18, 2009 (9:05 am)

thanks for the pre-emptive warning WSB. the tendancy to victim-bash gets old very quickly. i once had my work laptop stolen out of my car trunk, and i for one can say: the victim of a crime is literally the last person that needs to hear “hey, you shouldn’t do that;” being a victim, they know. to this day (years later) i have people at work point out to me that i shouldn’t leave a laptop in my trunk. it’s like, really? oh, i didn’t realize despite the theft! grrrrr . . .
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on another note, @homesweethome, according to the crime chart WSB recently posted, that corridor of admiral (and, in particular, the intersection near the school) is actually a relatively high-crime area in west seattle.