West Seattle Crime Watch: Burglary arrests, with citizens’ help

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Thanks to the WSB’er who called to share news of burglary suspects getting arrested – the caller wanted to give kudos to police, but Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James says they’re particularly deserved by the alert neighbor who reported the break-in and called it in: “A neighbor saw a male casing a house in the 3600 blk 46th SW [map], then break in through the back door. Officers arrived and took one male into custody immediately. Another male fled out the door and was taken into custody after a short foot chase.” Lt. James has reported at recent community meetings that West Seattle burglaries are way down, in no small part thanks to situations like this. (The next briefing’s expected when the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meets tomorrow night, 7 pm @ the precinct.)

ADDED 4:09 PM: This wasn’t the only citizen-assisted burglary-suspect catch in West Seattle today, reports AJL in comments:

My husband, who happened to be home, caught a guy halfway into our kitchen window this morning! 6300 block of 37th between Morgan and Graham. In burglar’s haste to escape he dropped his cell phone. While husband was talking with police, he happened to see the guy running up the alley between 37th and 38th just off Morgan Street. Police got him!

k September 20, 2010 (3:33 pm)

now that’s neighborhood watch in action!

Vort September 20, 2010 (3:41 pm)

Way to go! This guy really probably prevented 10 or 20 burglaries considering that these guys seem to mostly be serial burglers. Hopefully, we can keep him in jail for as long as possible and get a restraining order to keep him out of some portion of the neighborhood.

odroku September 20, 2010 (3:43 pm)

Is there a physical description of these ‘suspects’ available? When did this arrest take place?

AJL September 20, 2010 (3:55 pm)

My husband, who happened to be home, caught a guy halfway into our kitchen window this morning! 6300 block of 37th between Morgan and Graham. In burglar’s haste to escape he dropped his cell phone. While husband was talking with police, he happened to see the guy running up the alley between 37th and 38th just off Morgan Street. Police got him!

WSB September 20, 2010 (4:05 pm)

AJL, we’ll add that to the story – hooray for husband and police! – TR

burglarbustindad September 20, 2010 (4:28 pm)

Good Job!
Glad I have neighbors like you.
I would love to hear a follow-up.

Irukandji September 20, 2010 (4:59 pm)

Great combo of eyes-on neighbors and quick SPD response!

HunterG September 20, 2010 (5:07 pm)

I too would love to have some sort of description of the perps…maybe it is a certain someone who robbed me. Would love to know that this certain person would be locked up.

onceachef September 20, 2010 (5:53 pm)

Way to go neighbors!

Silly Goose September 20, 2010 (6:19 pm)

Hum would love to know the description as I called 911 this afternoon after a suspious male came into our neighborhood that is a dead and walked into everyone’s yards looking at everything. He was a white male early 30’s doo rag on his head, shorts, black jacket that he was holding closed the whole time with one hand and a white glove on his left hand and trust me he was no Michael Jackson!!

Leroy September 20, 2010 (8:15 pm)

I learned my lesson well when I basically brushed off banging I heard from my next door neighbor’s house. I just assumed they were doing some construction but in reality someone was breaking in! I felt TERRIBLE knowing that I could have called the police if only I had been a little more “nosey”. Good on you for protecting your neighbors.

Angelina September 20, 2010 (9:26 pm)

I live on 47th and Alaska and around 7:00pm this evening, I saw a male casing out houses on my block. He was a male hispanic, late 30’s-40’s, wearing blue jeans and a blue sweatshirt. He would go up to certain homes and knock and look suspiciously around. He was carrying a notepad and pen and was most certainly not a salesman. Knowing what he was up to I followed him slowly down the block and even saw him go up to a neighbors door, knock and then once she answered, walk away. I just wanted to give people in this area a heads up to the obvious casing that was going on.

Julie September 20, 2010 (9:31 pm)

I live 2 blocks away from the 46th and Spokane St. incident. Two hours after this burglary was prevented at 5:30, my next door neighbor returned home to find a guy and 2 vehicles casing our street, walking into backyards, etc. He phoned it into 911 and scared off the cars with his attention. Black VW bug, primer gunmetal color and a maroonish red honda. 4 guys in hoods and one female. Seems like they are working the neighborhood, everyone keep an eye out.

Babs September 21, 2010 (12:17 am)

OMG, the kitchen window one is giving me nightmares. I know the econ is bad but all the casing going on along with follow-up break-ins. Grass root block watches and nosy neighbors is the best defense.

Teresa September 21, 2010 (7:39 am)

Glad to hear there has been an arrest! I hope it was one of the guys that broke into our house. Our house was broken into on the 14th. (52nd and Genesee) The neighbors saw one guy and two women in a silver PT Cruiser.

Jean September 21, 2010 (8:02 pm)

And count us as recent victims, as well. We got burglarized a few days ago. We live in the Lincoln Park area. Several of our neighbors saw a uhaul truck in our alley about the time it happened (late afternoon). SPD did not seem all that interested in the leads. So, West Seattle keep up your guard!
Jean

tizzc September 24, 2010 (10:06 am)

I posted this on the report about car burglaries but thought I would add it on to this thread as well. I live on the 8800 block of 34th Ave SW and my house was broken into on Friday the 17th between 8am and noon. Looks like they tried to get in through the sliding glass door, gave up and smashed in my back door. The deadbolt held up but the hinges didn’t. Lesson learned, use 3″ screws on the hinges so they sink into a stud. Better yet invest in something like this http://www.armorconcepts.com/.

Sorry, comment time is over.