West Seattle Crime Watch: Café Osita burglarized again; Highland Park prowler

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

BURGLARIZED AGAIN: Two people texted to let us know it appeared Café Osita at 7349 35th SW had been burglarized again – they saw the door getting boarded up – and even before we could get over to check, we heard from proprietor Andrea, saying, “We arrived this a.m. to find the front (glass) door smashed in. No one was hurt; the place was ransacked and items were stolen.” Police are reviewing evidence, and Andrea says Café Osita is closed today because of the break-in. Her shop also was broken into in August, as reported here.

HIGHLAND PARK PROWLER: From Evan:

I live in the 16th/Kenyon area of West Seattle, and spotted a guy wandering up and down the alley looking into people’s back yards. He would stop at each house for 1-2 minutes and look around the yards, once even climbing up onto the fence.

My neighbor recently had his motorcycle stolen from his yard, so if you can warn those in the neighborhood to watch out for this guy, that would be awesome. I called the police to report him and gave them his description.

Evan says police arrived to search the alley within 15 minutes of his call. When you call 911 about a prowler or burglar, the response time – depending on what else is happening – hinges on whether you are seeing them RIGHT NOW, moments ago, or whether it’s something that might have happened hours ago, so they advise always being clear on the time frame. (If you scroll through the automated tweets on our Crime Watch page, for example, you’ll see classifications such as BURGLARY, I/P OR J/O, which means “in progress” or “just occurred.”)

12 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Café Osita burglarized again; Highland Park prowler"

  • Alan September 10, 2015 (9:54 am)

    Thanks to Evan for being vigilant and getting the picture. That is a pretty distinctive jacket.

  • 4thGenWestSide September 10, 2015 (11:02 am)

    Kind of looks like he is picking blackberries.

  • schwaggy September 10, 2015 (11:20 am)

    When seconds count – police are minutes away.
    15 minutes!?!?!? Geeze

  • themightyrabbit September 10, 2015 (12:18 pm)

    Hey schwaggy,

    You should go on a ride along with the local precinct, and learn what’s a high priority versus a low one. For instance, domestic abuse are up there in priority alongside homocides. Potential future but not actual theft by some weirdo scoping out backyards, not highest priority. Understand life and death situation are more important before making some comment about 15 minutes for an officer to turn up…

  • shownofear September 10, 2015 (12:28 pm)

    Ya’ know….I kind of think 4thGenWestSide has a point. Looks like he’s berry picking to me too. BUT, better safe than sorry when you just are not certain what an unknown person is up to.

  • Alan September 10, 2015 (1:32 pm)

    It does kind of look like he is picking blackberries. It could be that he even has a bucket in the other hand. I am sure that a thief would never think to have a ploy to give them reason to be in the alley. And I’m sure he must have been cold, since our nights have been dipping down to the high 50’s, which explains the arctic jacket and hood. He was probably just carefully checking those backyards to see if they might have some more blackberry bushes.

  • Gail September 10, 2015 (2:10 pm)

    I saw this guy Tues morning around 9a walking around 17th & Myrtle – he walked really slowly checking everything out, and then creeped me out by staring me down as I loaded my kids into the car. My sense at the time was that he was casing the house – I even searched the place when I got home, he made me so nervous! I saw his face, he is an Asian man with med-long brown hair. Def not a berry picker!

  • Elle Nell September 10, 2015 (11:54 pm)

    NOoo … Not Cafe Osita, again!! Andrea, time for a camera or nice allegater to be there to greet these degerates… So sorry and let’s all get in there to help Cut the slack!! ❤️

    • WSB September 11, 2015 (1:32 am)

      Don’t know about an alligator, but she did mention a camera and that its photos (video?) would be reviewed.

  • Jason Sturgeon September 12, 2015 (9:05 am)

    Anyone who is looking to let Osita know how much we love them (or help with the high cost these days of security alligators), we are regulars who live nearby and have set up a CrowdRise page to ‘Buy Osita a Cup of Coffee’ – Visit and donate at https://www.crowdrise.com/buycafeositaacupofco/fundraiser/jasonsturgeon

  • gina September 15, 2015 (12:28 pm)

    Even thieves probably like blackberries. Yes, he must have been freezing to be wearing that jacket, but lots of sunshine as indicated by the shades.

  • gina September 15, 2015 (12:29 pm)

    BTW, what’s an alligator?

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