We start this West Seattle Crime Watch update with a followup, as promised, on the burglary/suspects reports from yesterday afternoon. Southwest Precinct commander Captain Steve Paulsen says there were four burglaries in the area, including the 36th/Myrtle one we had mentioned. Two possible suspects were detained, he says, but: “We didn’t quite have enough at this time for arrest, but we are following up with evidence collected. Both of these subjects are well known to us. Since the increase in burglaries, we have re-arranged our normal deployments which include modifying work hours in order to maximize the opportunities to apprehend the suspects. Our officers are chasing every suspicious circumstance 911 call that gets broadcast and we are flooding the area with multiple officers. We think we have 2-3 teams working in the West Seattle area. Our folks have been sharing information with other precincts as well as neighboring jurisdictions (Puget Sound region) who are experiencing the same issue and some of the same subjects.” Meanwhile, we’ve heard from some of yesterday’s victims – that, and other Crime Watch reader reports, ahead
One of them, we believe, was Chris, who posted a report in comments on yesterday’s story. Here’s another, via e-mail from a resident who didn’t want their name used,sent Thursday evening:
I Wanted to report to the Blog that I got home (last night) to find my back door kicked in, they tried to pry a side window then punched a hole through a pane in the back door to try and reach the deadbolt. Stupid idiots didn’t realize it was a Key lock on both sides, and they cut their hand reaching in, left some nice blood DNA behind. It happened sometime between 2:00 pm and 5:30 pm, and looks like the little bastards were in a real hurry, probably was related to the earlier police activity this afternoon at the corner of 34th and webster, seems as though they were on a real spree. They just grabbed the small portable electronics, a plastic cup of quarters, and tossed the bedroom dresser drawers. I’m at 34th and Holden. Police just left, they took a full report, AND a blood sample from the door. I Have also reported it to my block watch captain. Be vigilant neighbors, these scum are everywhere!
Earlier in the week, Alan was hit:
On Tuesday, between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM, our house was broken into. I am almost always home, but was away at that time. This is the second house on our street hit during a short absence.
Entry was made in back by breaking the tempered glass out of one of our French doors. They never actually opened the doors, they just made a hole big enough to go through. Primarily they took a Dell laptop and my wife’s jewelry box. Sadly, the primary value of the items in the box were memories. It included a watch that belonged to my wife’s father, which is the only memento she had of him. There were a number of other items in the jewelry box, including her expired drivers license, which was returned to us today.
The drivers license must have been found and returned to the Westwood Dept of Licensing office because they mailed it back to us. No note of explanation included.
Most of what we value most from what was taken likely got tossed with the driver’s license. If we could find out where that was found somehow, we would gladly search through garbage for them.
And we got this note last night from Tom:
Just had an interesting event in our neighborhood (41st/42nd and Cloverdale).
At 7 pm, my daughter noticed someone at our neighbor’s across the street. The person was in their gate on their front porch with a flashlight, and had taken their wreath off of the door. I watched for a minute, and I guessed (incorrectly) that it was someone trying to deliver a wreath but they had the wrong address. I stepped out of the house and watched a woman walking down the street- she was very relaxed, didn’t seem furtive etc. so I shrugged it off. I hadn’t remembered seeing a wreath there to begin with, and couldn’t imagine why someone would steal a wreath.
We just saw our neighbor out at a party and I told her about what my daughter had seen. It turns out my daughter was right- they had ripped it off. There’s a good chance they were casing the place? Regardless, wanted to give a heads-up for this neighborhood over the WSB (we will be talking to our neighbors as well). We’ll be here for the holidays and will be keeping our eyes peeled.
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