West Seattle Crime Watch: Alarm spooks burglar(s), and more

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three West Seattle Crime Watch notes this evening. First, a burglary today at Melissa‘s home:

At around 2 PM this afternoon our house at 36th AVE SW and Cloverdale was broken into. Our window at the side of our house was lifted and then shattered. The intruders had gloves on; when the officer dusted for prints there were only prints from gloves and the officer suspects there were at least two intruders based on his findings. Luckily for us as soon as they set off our motion detector off the alarm sounded and they left our house through our front door, leaving it wide open. The police did respond within 30 minutes. I am not sure what more we can do to protect our home short of getting a guard dog; we have an alarm, an alarm sign in the front of the house that is clearly visible and a smaller dog. Please be on the lookout for suspicious activity or those that don’t belong in our neighborhood and call the police if you do see or suspect something.

About half a mile away, in the 30th/Cloverdale open space, Amy and her two boys were enjoying a picnic last Friday night when they walked away for a few minutes, leaving behind their gray lunchbox on the playground ledge for a few minutes. It was gone when they returned, and while Amy doesn’t care so much about the lunchbox, she says it contained her keys, on a colorful beaded keychain that means a lot to her because it was made by one of her sons. She’s hoping someone might have them or find them, and would either contact police to turn them in, or return them to where they were taken from.

Finally, a followup note – we covered a White Center bank robbery last Wednesday, with Seattle Police joining the search, and King County Sheriff’s making a quick arrest. On partner site White Center Now, we’re reporting on the charge filed against the suspect, along with more about how it all unfolded.

P.S. Night Out is one week from tomorrow – Tuesday, August 7th! Signed up yet? Go here, if not. And if you’d like material to support your block party – drop by the Southwest Precinct meeting room 11 am-1 pm tomorrow to get it from West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’ Network volunteers … details here.

Harold Reems July 30, 2012 (8:16 pm)

SMART homeowners for having motion detector lighting and an alarm.

Shame on SPD for taking 30 minutes to respond.

Stop! Thief! July 30, 2012 (9:47 pm)

Melissa and all,
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You may consider getting a video camera to monitor your home. They are not that expensive these days. I know someone who caught neighborhood thieves because he had the camera installed above his front door.
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The police came to my friend’s house to look at the video and in a strange twist of justice and fate, the thieves were WALKING BY HIS HOUSE at that moment.
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Police called them over, questioned them about the burglary and after they denied it, they were shown the video. With little choice, they confessed and were booked.
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Often even a poor video image can help police identify known crooks in a given area. Most of them have been in trouble before and even wear the same clothes from one crime to the next.
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Sorry to hear of your bad experience. I hope you and your family were not badly traumatized by the intrusion.

Krystal July 30, 2012 (9:59 pm)

30 minutes is pretty lame, but I feel just a while ago they weren’t responding to bulgularies at all. Wasn’t there a story of a women in the Genesee area who had her home burglarized, called the cops, waited all day and no response? I’m pretty sure I’m not making it up.

Good to know they arrived and did what they could.

WSB July 30, 2012 (10:25 pm)

Because we have discussed this many times before here: Police’s first priority is life-safety issues. If available officers are handling something along those lines, they cannot get to a burglary (etc.) immediately. However, believe me, as someone who listens to the scanner many hours most days/nights, if they get a call about a burglary in progress, that’s when the lights flash and the sirens scream – we have had story after story after story here about alert neighbors spotting the burglars, and suspects being caught. I also hear calls dispatched about suspicious sightings like an open door, possible breaking glass being heard, you name it. The OP writes “within 30 minutes” – and we usually publish reader reports verbatim – but if they weren’t there, I don’t know who was keeping the time clock, or whether neighbors saw anything and made a “this is happening now” call (or whether the mention of an alarm means an alarm company was in the loop somehow) … TR

Arbor Hts July 30, 2012 (11:32 pm)

At least your burglary made the news in the West Seattle Blog. I had wrote the WSB on June 3rd about my break in and didn’t even make it to the Crime Watch section.

WSB July 31, 2012 (1:02 am)

We screw up and lose reports that come in, for which I apologize. Our filing system to put things in queue for publication is imperfect, and so am I … TR

let them swim July 31, 2012 (9:51 am)

TR/WSB, here’s to your crew. I know I make errors/mistakes all the time. Who doesn’t?

Curiouser July 31, 2012 (11:56 am)

Melissa, so sorry this has happened to you. Was anything stolen? I know this feels icky.
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I would like to know if the alarm was monitored by an alarm company that called the police. If an active alarm is reported by the alarm company, is this not considered to be “a burglary in progress”???

Paul July 31, 2012 (6:24 pm)

Hey Melissa,

That sucks, sorry to hear this happened to you and your family. Glad no one was hurt and hope nothing was stolen.

Concerned August 1, 2012 (3:04 pm)

My home, too, was broken into twice. Never got any kind of satisfaction from the Seattle Police. I then purchased a South African Boerboel (210lb South African Mastiff) and have had no problems to date. Sometimes you just need to put the fear of dire consequences in folks to make them do the right thing.

Sorry, comment time is over.