By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog

From reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers:

*Around 4:30 last Friday afternoon, a 13-year-old was walking home from school when a car pulled into a driveway, blocking the sidewalk. A young passenger demanded money and the boy’s iPod. The boy said something to the effect of, “I don’t think so,” and added “I live near here. How about if I just get my parents instead?” The chagrined suspects drove off northbound in the 3400 block of Walnut SW. Both driver (aged 16 or so) and passenger (12-13 years old) were described as white males wearing white t-shirts; they were in a Nissan Frontier pickup truck.

4 more summaries (quiet week!) ahead:

*Thursday, just after midnight, an Admiral man went out onto his porch for a late cigarette and spotted a man across the street — in the 3600 block of 42nd SW — peering into a bedroom window. He called 911 and stayed on the line with operators for 15 minutes, describing the man’s actions and alerting them when he walked away. Officers found the suspect that matched the description and booked the 45-year-old (who resides in the same general neighborhood) into King County Jail for investigation of a sex offense (peeping).

*Beware any phone caller who claims that one of your family members is injured or jailed and that money (for bail or hospital) needs to be wired. After receiving such a call, an Arbor Heights grandparent wired $5,000 to Mexico before thinking to double-check the claim by calling his grandson directly. (Grandson was actually hale and hardy at his home in Renton.)

*An intoxicated Alki-area resident and his brother were swinging chairs in the air, taking drinks outside, and castigating female bartenders with obscene language at an Alki bar late Saturday. When officers arrived, the main troublemaker (whose vocabulary seemed limited to words that began with the letter “f”) refused to obey simple commands to keep his hands visible. The brother, also intoxicated and hostile, pulled out his cell phone to “document” the incident, yelling obscenities and stirring up the crowd. The suspect was booked into King County Jail for investigation of trespass, harassment and obstruction.

*Around 6:30 Tuesday morning, a man placed an order at an Admiral coffee shop, sat down at a table, and found a way to entertain himself without resorting to the daily crossword puzzle. A barista called 911; the man zipped up, and then ran off southbound on 41st SW. Police couldn’t find him.

*A woman who claimed she had been “kicked out” of several mental hospitals ended up on a porch in the 5200 block of Fauntleroy around noon on Sunday, disoriented and rambling. She told officers she had been in the Royal Navy, the CIA, and Hawaiian law enforcement, working undercover to buy drugs from cartels and resell them to hospitals. She was taken to Harborview for a mental-health exam.

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WSB Editor’s Note: The WSBeat has an archive category of its own. We also continue to publish crime reports the rest of the week, when we get tips or hear noteworthy incidents via the scanner, so don’t be shy about letting us know when you see/hear something happening.