We start this West Seattle Crime Watch report with toplines from the crime-trends update presented at last night’s WS Crime Prevention Council meeting by new precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske (right): Residential and nonresidential burglaries are below average this past month, he said, attributing that to arrests of juvenile-burglary suspects as well as the Anti-Crime Team’s work. Car prowls “have been low the past four months.” But auto thefts are up, “and that’s the one category where we’re up, and up pretty significantly,” he said. However, he said, two “very active auto thieves” who have been in custody since January 28th are blamed for much of the month’s spike – he says it’s dropped since they were arrested. Asked about violent crimes, “there’s nothing that really strikes me” as unusual, he said. He was asked about but did not have updates on West Seattle’s two unsolved 2013 murders.

(Most of the rest of the WSCPC meeting dealt with the ongoing Ryan Cox case and what turned out to be the synergistic pre-scheduled presentation about the city’s Mental Health Court – that’s all coming up in a separate story.)

Now, read on for our most recent reader reports – including prowlers, suspicious behavior at a playground, a stolen car found by a WSB reader, and a stolen truck reported just over the city-limit line in White Center (could turn up here, so we’ll publish those reports when we get them):

First, from Kristin overnight:

While getting up to use the restroom in the middle of the night tonight, I noticed the light to my car was on. I park my car on the street in front of my house (2700 block of 48th SW). As I walked closer to the window to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,I saw a shadowy figure run away down the street, north toward Admiral Way, with two others. I quickly told my husband, and he walked down a little ways and saw what looked like three teenage boys prowling other cars, and I immediately called police. I thought people should know. Normally I lock my car, but I forgot to last night. Luckily I keep nothing of any value in my car.

Earlier in the week, from Margaret:

After noticing our garage door was open (1300 block in North Admiral), my husband confronted a man rummaging through my neighbors adjacent garage. Man was unable to account for what he was doing in neighbors garage, and left VERY quickly when my husband went inside to call police. Man was in his 30’s, Hispanic, white cap, gold chains and puffy jacket. Drove away in red pick up truck license (starting with B733), white cover over bed of truck. Police have been notified.

Kathi did call police about this sighting on Monday, but wanted the community to know as well:

My children were just playing at Arbor Heights Elementary….ages 14, 12, 10. They encountered a strange man acting suspicious he proceeded to follow them around the play ground and pretended to shoot them (he did not have any gun he was just pretending to use a rifle). He was in his late twenties, Caucasian, red coat, dark jeans, white sneakers with velcro, and riding an orange bike and wearing a dark blue bike helmet…..

If you missed this exchange last night in comments on a recent stolen-car report – the Nissan Maxima reported stolen by “Trevor NY” was found by commenter Sallyjoe. The car owner says it’s in OK shape and wasn’t too far away from where it was taken.

And we have another stolen-vehicle report this morning – from Ted in White Center:

Could turn up on this side of the line, so we’re sharing by request. It was stolen from outside Ted’s home at 11th SW and SW 108th overnight: “Washington license B15051Y. King County Sheriff report 14-043579.”

P.S. If you missed hearing from new precinct commander Capt. Wilske last night, he is also on the agenda for the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council at 7 pm tonight, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW).