West Seattle Crime Watch: Junction robbery, burglary reports

Three reports in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon: First, info on the reason for a police search early this morning in The Junction. Police confirm a man reported being robbed at gunpoint at California/Alaska at 2:15 am. According to Det. Jeff Kappel in the media unit, here’s the description he gave officers: Black man in his mid-20s, 5-7, 180 pounds, short hair, mustache, black T-shirt, black cutoff-jeans shorts, black handgun, took off on foot headed westbound. A K-9 team joined the search, but the reported robber wasn’t found. (Hat tip to Lisa at CAPERS, who says the man who reported the robbery came into her store this afternoon; he told her it happened in the alley behind the west side of the Alaska-to-Oregon block. Also in The Junction, Katie e-mailed to ask what happened to the window at Northwest Art and Frame (right). Turns out a would-be burglar smashed it early Tuesday. The online police report says they did not enter the business; a staffer we talked to this afternoon said it didn’t appear anything had been taken. That would be at least the fourth case of business-window-smashing in West Seattle in the past few weeks (after Zebra Print and Copy in The Triangle and Freshy’s Coffee and The Swinery in South Admiral).

JumboJim July 29, 2010 (9:25 pm)

I noticed a window or door boarded up on the south side of Buddha Rukhsa this morning. The ‘Open’ sign was still lit though. I wasn’t sure if they were doing some remodeling or something more sinister happened.

Julie July 30, 2010 (7:07 am)

Allstar Fitness was broken into 1 week ago and the coffee shop on Delridge was hit 2 times in the past week.

Thistle July 30, 2010 (7:22 am)

Was the coffee shop Pearls or Uptown Espresso? Not that I wish smashed windows/break ins on any business but it would really be a gut punch to think that either of those shops would have to go through two break ins. The owners and their family/employees are the most amazingly nice group of people I have found at any coffee shop. Even though I have moved away from Delridge I still make the trip over to Pearls for their crepes and coffee.

JULIE July 30, 2010 (10:25 am)

Uptown

bridge to somewhere July 30, 2010 (11:15 am)

it’s perhaps an indication of how little police pressure vandals/thieves feel when they can break a huge picture window on busy california avenue without worrying about alerting the police . . .

Silly Goose July 30, 2010 (1:45 pm)

Maybe they are smashing the windows to see if an alarm goes off and if it does how long it takes for the police to appear!! So frustrating as a local citizen for creeps to do this to my community.

I can’t even imagine the frustration level a business owner must feel not to mention the expense to replace this senseless damage.

cjboffoli July 30, 2010 (2:22 pm)

If I were a store owner along California I’d probably be forming a nighttime shotgun posse at this point. The Junction especially can sometimes feel like a pretty lawless place in the wee hours of morning. Some of those big plate glass windows can be expensive to replace. No doubt a significant expense for small businesses to endure.

Wild Bill July 30, 2010 (5:44 pm)

Our storage unit at Public Storage on Avalon was robbed sometime in the last 2 weeks. We called police and our insurance company and the PS district manager. Appears to be an inside job, because neither of the 2 locks were broken. We do not trust this place anymore.

Uptown Barista July 31, 2010 (7:35 pm)

It was the Delridge Uptown. I work there, and the same person twice pulled a “smash and grab”. From what I’ve heard SPD suspects it was the same person that did it to several other businesses (Freshys the Swinery, etc) including All Star Fitness.
To Silly Goose: this person has the same method everywhere, they dont care about the alarm, because they are in and out of the business within seconds.

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