Eric in Seaview says somebody crashed into his sidewalk planter last night – strewing concrete chunks everywhere – then drove off. Read on for his story, with a photo:

I live on 49th SW between Brandon & Findlay (map). Last night, sometime after 7 PM, I was mowing my backyard and heard a loud car crash. I ran to the front of the house in time to see a white minivan backing up and then driving away after driving up on the sidewalk and crashing head-on into my sidewalk planter.

You can see from the photo that heavy pieces of cement were thrown up to 8 ft. I looked at the driver (middle aged white male), who drove away heading south, with me standing in the middle of the street writing down their license plate number (839 S–). He was looking right at me in the side view mirror. I chased him on foot for a block but could not keep up. I have filed a police report. It¹s hard to believe someone would drive off after crashing their car and doing property damage, while being fully aware that they¹d been caught red-handed. Unless of course they were drunk or drug impaired. I’m guessing this is one of our nice West Seattleites. The white minivan no doubt has front-end damage.

(Eric did get the full plate number, but we do not publish complete identifying information without someone having been charged with a crime – what matters most is for police to have it, for their investigation. Call the non-emergency number, 206-625-5011, if you have info.)