West Seattle Crime Watch: Bank-holdup followup; teen robbed…

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight and a reminder.

BANK-ROBBERY FOLLOWUP: First, we followed up on Friday evening’s Washington Federal bank robbery north of The Junction, inquiring with both Seattle Police and the FBI, hoping they would have surveillance images to circulate. So far, none have been made available. Police had only a bare-bones report available; it describes the robber as a white man estimated to be between 40 to 60 years old. The report says the “handgun” shown by the robber might have been plastic, and that he might have fled to a sedan in the alley. We also heard from a reader who says she was in the bank when the robbery happened and offered additional descriptive details: That the robber wore “a plastic, full faced Halloween mask, not a ski mask. He had gloves on … no taller than 5’6”. thin build. walked in stealthily … gruff voice.” If you have any information, call 911.

PHONE ROBBERY: Later Friday night, a 13-year-old girl was robbed of her cell phone while walking near Southwest Athletic Complex, on her way back to the late-night teen program at Southwest Teen Life Center. One of her parents e-mailed us to share details; the victim was holding her cell phone, says the parent, when a group of girls asked her for it – she refused, but one girl pulled her hair and the other one grabbed the phone and they ran off. She wasn’t otherwise hurt, and they did file a report with police, but not until the next day, because at first the victim was embarrassed to tell her parent what had happened, since she had checked out of the program without getting permission. The parent says there’s one more sad part: The phone was her last gift from her other parent before that parent became critically ill, “and now it’s gone.” The message for other teens: “Rules are put there to protect them and they need to follow them … people do horrible things … walk in groups, don’t take out (your) cell phone.”

REMINDER: Tomorrow (Tuesday) night is the monthly West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, and this time instead of a guest presentation, it’s all about recent trends and your concerns. If you have a question or concern for local police, be there – 7 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).

6 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Bank-holdup followup; teen robbed..."

  • Jason May 19, 2014 (11:48 pm)

    The phone robbery story is so sad. She can have my iPhone.

  • datamuse May 20, 2014 (12:32 am)

    Poor kid. :(

  • Mitch May 20, 2014 (8:28 am)

    It’s sad that a lot of these thefts are happening by children. They have a mentality that is “I don’t have what you have. I want it. Give it to me.” I was walking in the junction and passed two young boys that were swearing for the sake of swearing, and talking about headphones. One boy asked loudly “is that the pair you stole?” as if it is a normal way to acquire something.

  • Franky Fitz May 20, 2014 (9:11 am)

    We need sting operations. It’s a bummer that SPD cutbacks included cutting ACT teams. This is what they were designed for.

  • Sad Mom May 20, 2014 (9:13 pm)

    Dale, you are right on. If smartphones were worthless on the secondary market, you would not see all this theft. My son’s iPhone was stolen from him last summer, down at Alki. He had just purchased the iPhone with his birthday money. Luckily we had insurance and were able to get it replaced. Many other kids, not so lucky.

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