West Seattle Crime Watch: Hit-run report; this week’s auto thefts

| Crime | West Seattle news

West Seattle Crime Watch starts tonight with a reader report:

HIT-RUN: Wendy reports, “Our car was hit last night sometime between 10 pm and 7 am, the car was parked across from Ercolini Park. The driver took out our side mirror. Sharing this in case someone saw something. A police report was filed.” It happened on 48th SW, west of the park.

CAR THEFTS: Another of our periodic category checks from the SPD crime-report map – vehicle thefts reported in the past ~week:

The live map is not embeddable, but if you go there and sort for vehicle theft, you’ll find the map above, with these reports from north to south:

Tuesday night, 2600 block 39th SW
Wednesday night, 3200 block Avalon Way
Friday night, 3600 block SW Brandon
Wednesday night, 5900 block 37th SW
Last Friday night (reported Saturday 3/26), 6300 block 42nd SW
Sunday afternoon, 3200 block SW Morgan
Sunday night, 7300 block 29th SW
Last Saturday night (reported Sunday), 2400 block SW Holden
Monday night, 8400 block 6th SW
Friday night, 8800 block 8th SW

No specifics (car description, etc.) are included in what’s mapped; while SPD still tweets vehicle thefts at @getyourcarback, they still don’t include any location or incident-number information (we’ve asked). That’s why we appreciate reader reports so we can publish complete info (editor@westseattleblog.com or text 206-293-6302) – we did get and publish this one for the Friday night theft at Westcrest. If you see what you think might be a stolen vehicle, call 911.

Bait Car April 3, 2016 (7:48 am)

Why no bait cars in seattle? Seems like we are a good candidate for this kind of program.

WSB April 3, 2016 (8:01 am)

That’s asked often at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council. Answer is that they were tried but didn’t work. No specifics, though.
chemist April 3, 2016 (9:38 am)

2009 King 5 article – kind of suggests they work

Keller was arrested and charged for the bait car theft, as well as
four other car thefts. Just to add a little more insult, the video
allowed him to be cited with driving without a seat belt and driving
without a license.

Community Transit says its bait car program has
dramatically reduced the number of car thefts from 82 in 2006 to 20 in
2008. So far this year, only three cars have been stolen – the two at
the Mariner Park and Ride and the bait car.
- WSB April 3, 2016 (10:31 am)
  
  Or, worked in that time and that place for that agency, which is responsible for a limited amount of turf. It appears they have since had a resurgence, despite bait-car use. Other online references include mentions of SPD usage last decade, but for example the car had to be set up, left running, with a detective waiting nearby. What then-South Precinct Captain Mike Nolan is quoted here (in a story by a writer who has since gone to work for SPD) as saying, is what has been said when it comes up at WSCPC, etc. Last time it was asked, though, the answer was something more along the lines of “never say never,” as in perhaps they’ll try again. P.S. According to the Crime Dashboard, auto theft was down from 2014 to 2015 in the Southwest Precinct – 540 to 500. Stats for this year are available through February, and it also appears to be down a bit. But of course, even one is too many! – TR

Eric1 April 3, 2016 (9:51 pm)

I too have wondered why no bait cars. But then if you watch the TV programs, it takes 4 or 5 people to run an operation and, even then, they don’t have that much success. The cost to benefit ratio just isn’t there for most cities. If you just leave the car with “remote” monitoring, it is probably even less effective on actually catching car thieves since by the time you find the car, the thief is probably long gone and you just have film of the perp and you have to arrest them at a later date.

The biggest deterrent to conducting a bait car program would probably be the lax punishment that is handed out. Why arrest somebody if they will be released tomorrow? The auto theft law looks great as a Class B Felony with 10 years and $20,000 fine but since we have the panzy uniform sentencing guidelines, you have to steal a lot of cars before you even go to jail. It would be nice if prosecutors would punish car theft with a choice of $20,000 or 10 years on the first offense. THAT might actually stop car thefts. Greater than 99% of people probably don’t steal cars: Is it that hard to actually punish the few who do?

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