West Seattle Crime Watch: Hit-run; break-in; car found

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight: First, a hit-run that Shannon hopes you can help solve:

(Photo added Saturday – click it to see a larger view, rotated so coding is readable)

We were the victims of a hit and run today. Sometime this afternoon between approximately 3:30 pm and 4:20 pm someone sideswiped our silver 2005 Dodge Neon, which was parked facing north on 48th Avenue SW between Juneau and Findlay. There are scratches and body damage starting from the rear driver’s side door continuing up to the front driver’s side tire area, including scratches on the windows and smudges, scratches, and denting on the driver’s door and the driver’s side mirror and casing were smashed. Whoever hit it was going pretty fast and sustained damage to their vehicle as well. I found parts of their smashed passenger side window and casing, along with other car parts as far as 30 feet in front of my car. Enough pieces were found to determine that the person who hit our car was driving a silver Volkswagen – either a 1999-2005 Golf Mk4, 1999-2005 Jetta Mk4, 1998-2001 Passat B5, or a 2001-2005 Passat B5.5. If you know of anyone with a vehicle matching this description that has passenger side damage or is missing a passenger side mirror, or if you saw this happen, please contact me at mitts1212@yahoo.com.

Karen‘s home was burglarized on Thursday:

Our house, located across from Lincoln Park, was broken in through the window of our basement. Camera and about $20 change were taken. House is in a bit of disarray, but doesn’t seem to be missing anything else. They had shoved our dog in a room while rifling through our house.

And one of this week’s stolen cars has been found – Stephanie first reported in this comment Wednesday that her green ’97 two-door Honda Civic had been stolen Monday afternoon from outside her home on Pigeon Point. She didn’t expect to ever see it again. But police found it less than two miles away, she says, at 23rd and Findlay.

WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL TUESDAY: Come hear from West Seattle’s new precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske, find out about the city’s Mental Health Court, and share neighborhood concerns, 7 pm at the Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).

WestSide45 February 14, 2014 (9:10 pm)

Shannon,
Good sleuthing work on the Volkswagen ID. Will keep eyes out.

alki resident February 14, 2014 (10:27 pm)

Karen- Were drawers emptied and stuff scattered everywhere? Were any prints lifted?

Mike February 15, 2014 (5:49 am)

If you can, post pictures of the parts you found. There are some things that can help determine if it’s a Passat/Jetta or Golf. They do use many of the same parts but their front ends are very different between the Golf and Jetta MKV (different front bumper/headlight/fender/hood and the Passat only shared the side mirror then switched to an updated version later with turn signals.
.
It could have been stolen, might want to check the PNW section of VWVortex.com to see if anyone had one stolen recently.

JK February 15, 2014 (6:17 am)

Glad your dog is okay!

vwguy February 15, 2014 (9:07 am)

If any of the VW wreckage has part numbers visible please post them. That might narrow down the model and you already have the color. Part numbers will have a format like this: “3B0 857 538B” which is part of a Golf mirror assembly.

Karen February 15, 2014 (9:40 am)

We later found they also took 24″ tv and Kindle.
@Alki Resident – yes to both: stuff scattered everywhere and prints lifted.
@JK – thanks! We’re glad too!

Shannon February 15, 2014 (11:46 am)

Thank you so much everyone! The part number from the silver, passenger side mirror casing is 3B0 857 538B, and there are two other groups of numbers/letters below it – FR3 VW then 8 37 200. I will send a couple pictures to Tracy today to see if she wants to add them. And, Westside45, I can’t talk all the credit for the sleuthing – luckily, I have awesome neighbors – one of them came outside and helped me look at the parts of the other car left on the street. My first assumption, obviously incorrect, was that it was probably a bus. And thanks for the great ideas Mike and VW Guy!

WSB February 15, 2014 (11:51 am)

Send away – editor@westseattleblog.com

alki resident February 15, 2014 (12:01 pm)

Will this casing number lead to the exact car that hit our victims car? This is so interesting.

shannon February 15, 2014 (12:19 pm)

@alki resident – i don’t think so. but at least it will narrow down the make/model and a year range so i can be on the lookout. :)

WSB February 15, 2014 (12:29 pm)

OK – I have added the photo that was sent. Click it to open up the largest view I could upload, rotated to the right so the coding is readable.

16th Ave February 15, 2014 (1:34 pm)

Just sharing – another VW hit a truck on 16th Ave SW and ran. I heard it at 3:30 this morning and then heard it dragging away. Didn’t realize what exactly was going on until this morning when we went to run errands and saw our neighbors truck up on the sidewalk and accident debris on the ground behind it. RED VW obviously by the red VW grill they left behind on the ground…I don’t know if my neighbor filed a report or not but if you see anything suspicious. Thx.

vwguy February 15, 2014 (2:55 pm)

Shannon: Unfortunately that part number does not narrow the list down beyond your original group of suspect vehicles (1999-2005 Golf Mk4, 1999-2005 Jetta Mk4, 1998-2001 Passat B5, or a 2001-2005 Passat B5.5.) As Mike posted, that mirror is somewhat generic. Let us know if you find any more parts and hopefully they’ll be more model unique.

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