West Seattle Crime Watch: Reader reports; followup; prevention advice

| Crime | West Seattle news

Here’s what’s in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon:

STOLEN CAR FOUND BEFORE ITS OWNER KNEW IT WAS GONE: From Jesse:

I’m just writing to report that my car was stolen sometime early this morning from in front of my apartment. I live at the Overlook Westridge Apartment complex which has a closed gate and I live pretty deep into the complex so these people were scoping around looking for an easy target which owning a late 90’s Honda Civic I know my car is. The car was found this morning before I knew it was gone at the Starbucks Headquarters. It looks like they also stole some mail and some offerings from the local Vietnamese cultural center because the police found lots of envelopes belonging to them. They also left their tools, food, and drug remnants in the car. There is an open case with regards to this 16-165228. I hope that getting the word out will help bring these low-lifes to justice. My car is a black 1999 Honda Civic Ex with a dent in the passenger door.

FOLLOWUP – STOLEN PICKUP TRUCK FOUND: Alexandria sent an update this morning on the pickup truck whose theft was reported here on X. It was found, she reports in Renton, “still drivable but cleaned out.”

Next, three car-prowl reports, which follow SPD’s circulation of this quick video with prevention advice:

You can also find the advice on this page of the SPD website.

CAR PROWL: Mary Beth reports, “Just want to give my neighbors a heads up, smash and grab broken car window on SW Myrtle St [3000 block] sometime last night. Took the emergency bag.”

HIT AGAIN IN HIGHLAND PARK: From Ryan:

Just an email to get it out there that for the 5th time in barely over a year my wife’s Xterra had the rear window broken out of it and it was ransacked. Took place on the 8600 block of 13th ave SW. Previously my car was broken into twice, and stolen once. It really leaves you feeling totally helpless when it continues to happen over, and over, and over and SPD flat out says they will not investigate, and basically as I was told “filing a report will only generate metrics for us.”

JUNCTION CAR BREAK-IN: Also a reader report – this was spotted early this week:

Saw a brand-new Prius in the Mural Apartments parking garage with the driver-side window busted out. The automatic garage door was closed, but several exit doors connecting the garage with the alley behind the building were propped open, including the door connecting the garage with elevators to the residences. All of the doors connected to the garage along the alleyway are reinforced with a steel plate to prevent forced entry, but in the past few weeks I’ve seen those plates bent back, broken, etc. Seems like someone has been trying to get into the garage for a while.

The building is on 42nd SW across from Jefferson Square.

CAR PROWLED IN SEAVIEW: This happened yesterday and came in via text: “My car was rifled through between 2-6 pm … parked in the alley unlocked between 47th-48th and Graham/Raymond. I was in the backyard during this entire time and did not see/hear anything. Found my car with passenger front door open to the alley with both glove boxes’ contents thrown on the floor. About a dollar’s worth of change was taken.”

(added 4:23 pm) AND ANOTHER CAR PROWL: While this roundup was still atop our site, this came in from Barbara:

I wanted to let neighbors know that my car window was broken sometime during last night May 11th at 9000 13th Ave SW. A empty computer bag was taken.

P.S. Want to bring up neighborhood crime/safety concerns with local police? NEXT TUESDAY is your next chance, at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm Tuesday (May 17th) at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster).

John May 12, 2016 (2:44 pm)

How does the thief in the video get out of the ‘gate down’ garage?

Alan May 12, 2016 (3:13 pm)

Getting into a garage is a challenge. Making getting out a challenge would violate egress requirements. You wouldn’t want people burning alive in the garage because they couldn’t get to their keys.
Hebi May 12, 2016 (3:24 pm)

Oh, so many ways:

1. Same way he got in: wait for someone to drive in or out

2. Use the garage door opener in the car

3. Walk out a man-door, which are only locked from the outside

4. Leave via any door that a resident has propped open, because they’re waiting for a friend, because they’re taking out the garbage, because they lost or didn’t want to carry their keys

My husband managed condominiums for years and break-ins happen in “secure” garages ALL THE TIME. Don’t assume the gate is going to protect your belongings. And, be vigilant about your own building– don’t leave doors propped open for any reason and watch the gate close fully behind you , even if you are in a hurry.

Jc May 13, 2016 (8:12 am)

The statement about SPD not filing reports is disappointing. Recently, I caught my next door neighbor on my back step dismantling my screen door. Had a bag in her hand with parts of the door in it. Called SPD after she came back after I had gotten her off the property. Two very nice officers eventually showed up and after talking to both of us said they wouldn’t bother filing a report because it would “go nowhere.” This woman trespassed three times (that I caught her) in two days and vandalized my home and it wasn’t enough for even a report.

John May 13, 2016 (9:28 am)

Police will do nothing to help. They file a report and they are done. With all the bad stuff going on all the time I do understand that to try and follow up on every car break-in or theft would take a whole new police force. The only thing you can do is take valuables out, leave your car unlocked, to prevent an expensive window replacement, take the face-plate off the stereo, and get a theft deterrent such as a brake lock and/or kill switch. Sounds like a lot of work but it’s better than dealing with the insurance and loss of personal items that may be hard to replace. I’ve had my truck stolen twice, had to buy it back as a salvage vehicle because of the parts they took cost more than the so called “value” of the vehicle. My garage was broken into and although I knew who did it and had proof, the police wouldn’t do anything due to the fact that the items I got back were done by “illegal search and seizure” when I took them off his porch. Between the police and insurance, it’s better to just protect yourself and not have to deal with either one of them.