West Seattle Crime Watch: Car-prowl reports

At last week’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting (WSB coverage here), the crime trends discussed by local police indicated car prowls had been on the decline lately. Today, though, we have reports of at least three incidents since then, west and southwest of The Junction – read on:

From M, who’s on 44th just south of The Junction (map):

My car was broken into on Thursday night. No damage and they only took CDs. I think a neighbor down the street experienced the same thing.

And from MC in the vicinity of 50th and Alaska (map), where neighbors have been e-mailing each other about a string of car prowls – one was hit Wednesday night, had been left unlocked, and most of what was in the glove compartment was strewn across the floor – no damage, nothing taken — another neighbor reported getting hit twice recently, one with an unlocked car and nothing taken, another with a work van from which “small stuff” was stolen.

Lisa January 23, 2010 (2:58 pm)

We woke up to find our car stolen this morning. (From the 37th & Thistle area.) Fortunately, a very observant person in Arbor Heights recognized it as stolen – found our phone number on a repair slip – and called to tell us where our car was. No damage was done to the car – but anything of value was taken. (Which wasn’t much.) The police officer who processed our stolen vehicle report said it looked like they used a “slip key” to enter & then start the car. Just wanted to give a heads up.

brizone January 23, 2010 (4:31 pm)

@Lisa: Slip key for what KIND of car please? thx.

Ken January 23, 2010 (5:09 pm)

What is a “slip key” and where would they have gotten one? I Googled the phrase and nothing relevant came up that I could find.

Jon January 23, 2010 (11:43 pm)

The officer may have been referring to a jiggler key or shaved key. The main thing here is don’t leave things in your car, lock the doors, and have a neighborhood watch system where people know their neighbors. Those 3 things go a long way to keep you, your family, and your property safe.