Jen sends word of a midday break-in at her home in the 10400 block of 35th SW – she says she was gone between 11:15 am and 12:15 pm, and somebody kicked in the door, stealing a computer and jewelry boxes. If you saw anything suspicious, she says, please call police (who a reader says are currently in that general area).
This just leads me to believe people are watching homes. one hour is a real short time — do they knock and no one answers? this is just creepy!
Yes, they are waiting and watching. Happened to us a couple weeks ago except I caught the guy and sent his license to the sherrif, luckily my dog probably scared him off. Be extra aware of people sitting in their cars or creeping up the road when you are leaving, and if it seems suspicious turn around and take a picture!
I drove past there around 12:15 but unfortunately didn’t notice anything unusual. There were 2 cars parked in the small side driveway of AH school (nearest the K classrooms), but didn’t look suspicious. One was a light colored 4-door (maybe white, cream, silver). Sorry that happened, we’ve had our house broken into before, and it’s just awful. Hoping a neighbor or someone else may have seen something.
They put everything in my black rollerbag suitcase and left with it, so if you saw anyone with that, please let police know.
Do we know if Alan Polivia is out of jail again? Seems like a possibility, anyway, that he or his friends are responsible.
No, he’s not. As reported last night (see the link in the sidebar BIG STORIES list), he has been charged with burglary, and bail remains at $75K. I checked the jail register, too.
Someone posted on the neighbor site of an older SUV cruising that area. Any chance it played a part in it?
Does putting alarm stickers and signs on your house help (even if your house isn’t hooked up to one)?
As far as alarm company signs, I was told once that the bad guys see those and just cut your phone wires first, since the alrams are hooked up to your phone. Don’t know if that is urban myth or not.
@AH Resident: Stickers don’t help that much.
Checkout http://www.seattle.gov/police/prevention/neighborhood/cpted.htm
In addition, all defensive security, home or otherwise, is about layers. Neighbors that know each other, CPTED (see link above) are first layers. Then depending on how much you can afford (relative to what you want to protect): actual *properly installed* alarm systems, better locks, good home/bank safes for unused jewelry/electronics, good quality secure mailboxes (like MailBoss) are all useful deterrents to the casual smash/grab thief.
A H Resident – I don’t know any statistics but I figure if even there is the slightest chance they will move on if they see the sticker, why not?
@Mike “As far as alarm company signs, I was told once that the bad guys see those and just cut your phone wires first, since the alrams are hooked up to your phone. Don’t know if that is urban myth or not.”
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If possible, this is why the newer cellular models are so nice (it’s what we have, from ADT–they were out of stock on the wired so we got that instead free). The way they’ve explained it to me several times:
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Alarm goes off. In 60 seconds they call us (not 911 yet) if we don’t disable the system. If the phone line is cut, or power, doesn’t matter–it has up to a week of backup battery. And it’s cellular anyway, so they can cut whatever line they want to cut. Unless the burglar has a cell blocker, a giant faraday cage or an EMP bomb, they can’t stop it’s transmission.
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If we tell them it’s not us or ask them to call 911, they call 911. There are also Home and Away modes for the alarm. If the alarm triggers in Home mode and isn’t disabled, it’s a 911 call. In away mode it’s repeated calls to us first.
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If the alarm triggers in any mode and THEN signal is lost–i.e., the guy rips the box off the wall and somehow smashes/disables it–it becomes an instant 911 call.
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I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
I called police at 7:50 a.m. today because of 2 suspicious cars (old tan cadillac /old red hatchback ) in the AH Elementary play yard…an older man got out of one, changed into some white rain gear, pulled a large black trash bag out of his trunk. Weird that they were pulled all the way into the play yard. Supposively police were going to check it out?!!
Do always be aware of the usual cars in the area & then know when there are unusual cars or strangers. Always look around and see if someone is sitting in a car. Go around the block if any question. Pretend someone is in the house by waving at the house or throwing a kiss. Our friend kept having break ins and got an alarm that is a motion deal and a nasty sounding dog barks if anyone gets a certain distance from it….it worked…no more problems. Of course, you know the crooks prob read our comments. However, they are thrown off by not being sure if someone is there, if there is a dog there that could cause harm, etc. Whatever you can do to cast that suspicion will help. With hot weather coming, be very careful with open windows! You know the crooks will be watching. Some people get heavy pieces of cut wood and block the windows so they will not open any further….have to be thick enough not to break when tried. You could have a big dog bowl on the porch & a little trash can with some dog poop bags….
@AH Resident. That’s disconcerting to hear about what you witnessed at 7:50 a.m. at AH Elem. I’m curious, where the cars pulled up on the actual playground by the play equipment or in the area by the dumpster?
The best way to protect your home (from the smash and grab sort) is to make it hard to get in.. We have an alarm, a cellular one, but the fact is it takes the police a lot longer to get there than it takes them to run away with your stuff.
AH Parent- cars were on the actual playground…that’s what caught my eye! They had to have gotten the gate pulled open somehow.
I drove by the school about 1:15ish & saw people working on the school grounds (weed-wacking the dirt hill)
Jen, I’m sorry to hear about this. I live on your block, and had just gotten home about that time. Didn’t see anything, but I have some suspicions. Do you have the name of an officer I can contact?
West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network on Face book, don’t need to be a block watch captain to join this Facebook page. They post meetings in West seattle to learn more about crime prevention. I went to a meeting in May where West Seattle Officer Kiehn talked about how we can landscape our yards to deter home break ins . Useful tips I never really thought of before. Those little fake security stickers and beware of dog signs will deter a fair percentage of would be thieves.
WSBWCN also has a lot of information at http://wsblockwatchnet.wordpress.com – and we’ve covered many of their meetings, too. TONS of great info.
Around 5:30pm tonight a police car took a quick U-turn at 97th & 32nd Ave SW and stopped to talk to another police car. The 2nd car then took the same U-turn and they both sped up 97th west bound. I don’t know if it was related or something else happened. Does anybody know?
@anonyme. contact me if you have any info we can follow up on. Anything is useful.
@AR, my officers were trying to follow up on leads they came up with and were in the area to look around.
I’m the sergeant in charge of the day shift in West Seattle. email me at joseph.bauer@seattle.gov or call me at 206 233-7854 between 11:30 and 8:30 pm or leave me a voice mail
Dear WSB readers. Can we please leave poor Alan Polivia alone? I know that he is a criminal but he wasn’t always that way. We were friends when he was younger and he just got caught up in the wrong things. That doesn’t mean his life isn’t worth anything and that everytime a break in happens we should ask where Alan is. He is a real person and his life is worth something. Next time we see him let’s help him get his life back on track.
I do feel deep sympathy for burglary victims and losing your stuff sucks, don’t get me wrong.
This is the second break in on 35th in Arbor Heights in a few weeks. I sent in a letter to WSB a bit ago that I had received from a neighbor. Description below the pic of the bike: https://westseattleblog.com/2013/06/west-seattle-crime-watch-alki-hit-and-run-3-reader-reports
I would encourage these neighbors to get in touch if they have not already. So sorry to hear about the break in. It can be hard to keep an eye out on 35th as it is such a busy street.
DC, actually Alan’s actions have demonstrated that we should ask where he is when a break-in occurs. I would wager that every criminal “wasn’t always that way,” but it doesn’t mean they need to be shown sympathy when they repeatedly terrorize a community.
DC,
I’d say his track record gives everyone cause to ask if he was involved when there is a break in. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 17 times…
I also saw the Police speaking to some people (homeowners) on 106th just past 35th last night at around 6:45 ish. I wonder if it was related?
A house on our block of 98th/33rd got robbed last week a few hours after we reported a suspicious vehicle (white Chevy panel van w/ 2 guys inside) around 8:30 am. We drove past them and they drove off so we decided to drive around the block. When we did, we noticed they just parked the car on the other side of the street. I got back an hour later and noticed that they had all this yard equipment outside of the van and felt bad for thinking that they were suspicious. But funny thing, they were wearing street clothes, not yard working clothes with one wearing very baggy jeans that he was holding up with his hand. I actually thought to myself that it must be hard to mow a lawn with those pants.
Then I noticed later on that day that someone got robbed around that time, and am now thinking that the yard stuff were things they were stealing from the house. Anyways, we reported this activity to police and called back when we found out a neighbor got robbed, but nobody even asked us for a description of the 2 people in the van. Thank goodness we took a picture of the vehicle with license plate.
I am very sorry to hear of continued and brazen break ins in my neighborhood. We were burglarized end of March in Arbor Heights a few days after we moved in. They were watching us. There was an old red hatchback outside the day before with a guy pretending to work on it, as someone mentioned above. Unfortunately, we were new to the hood so we didn’t stop to talk to him.
Point taken. But I think you misunderstand what I’m saying. What I’m trying to say is that we’re all broken and in need of help. Some of us at deeper levels than others. Let’s look at how we can help a person like Alan. He was dealt a bad hand and is getting by the only way he knows how and unfortunately that is “terrorizing” people. As a community let’s try and show a little grace. Alan can change his ways and we should try and help him instead of badmouthing him in the comments of a blog
AHNeighbor: Think of Alan as Jean Valjean from the literary classic Les Miserables. When Valjean was released from prison nobody would give him work or take him in because of his criminal background. Out of kindness one man decided to take him in. Valjean repayed that man by stealing from him and when he was caught and questioned by police he lied about it and said the man gave him the goods. When the police made Valjean confront his victim to see if he was telling the truth the man scolded Valjean for not taking the silver candlesticks too. Valjean had never been shown grace like that before and it literally transformed his life.
Bill: Oh my gosh. Thank you for telling me it was fiction. I had no idea.
You know what I’ve changed my mind. Screw Alan Polivia. Let’s get him!!!
@ DC, obviously you are joking, perhaps your humor regarding this scum would be better received elsewhere – Alan Polevia has stolen from, and damaged, too many people’s homes, automobiles, property – including mine. I wish nothing more (most likely to be let down knowing our judicial process) that he be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and receive brutal, relentlessly painful treatment while incarcerated. However I wholeheartedly invite you to welcome this human waste into your home, fund his drug habit, and pay his legal expenses. Oh wait, what’s that, you can’t do that? You can’t afford it? Well – neither can the working, responsible residents of AH. May he pay for what he’s done.
I just got a new security system called xfinity home.and thank
God some one tryed to break in to are house and the alarm
went off and my wife kick’t him in the balls
Sorry, comment time is over.
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