The Southwest Precinct confirms West Seattle has had three incidents that are similar to a wave of dental-office break-ins in North Seattle; our fellow independent community-collaborative online-news site PhinneyWood reported the burglaries today (see their story here), saying the burglar(s) were after drugs and gold. Sgt. Jeff Durden says that shortly after they got word of what was happening in the north end, “West Seattle had a dental office broken into, and then another, and then an attempt.” This all happened in the span of about a week, and then stopped as suddenly as it started, according to Sgt. Durden. In the meantime, the precinct says, they worked fast to warn dental offices about what was going on. No arrests so far but it’s a high priority for detectives around the city. 1:01 PM UPDATE: New information – three people stopped by officers in West Seattle early this morning are now considered “persons of interest” in the dental burglaries. Sgt. Durden called back to say the arrests were made after officers saw the three acting suspiciously outside a dental office in the 5400 block of California around 1:40 am. Two of them were taken into custody in connection with unrelated warrants; the third was interviewed and released, while the investigation continues.