West Seattle Crime Watch: Drive-by car prowling, and more

In West Seattle Crime Watch:

DRIVE-BY CAR PROWLING: Shaun reports:

At roughly 1:28 am my wife witnessed this van driving down our street and stopping and opening car doors. Driver didn’t get out of van, just reached out of window to check if doors were open. We called it in, and followed at a distance. Once it stopped we got a picture of the van.

The License plate is: 01508 or 10508 – it was a specialty plate.

Shaun didn’t mention what part of West Seattle this happened in – we’re following up. (Update – Shaun says this was in Morgan Junction, and that they’ve since been told by police that the van was found and impounded, but no arrests so far.)

BROKEN WINDOW: In Admiral, two people reported seeing a broken window on a Jeep parked in the PCC Natural Markets-West Seattle (WSB sponsor) parking lot this morning, and “some contents” strewn outside.

And in the day’s biggest broken-glass incident:

ATM-THEFT AFTERMATH: We followed up with South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) about the considerable damage done by the ATM theft early this morning. SSC spokesperson Ty Swenson told WSB that the thief/thieves “seriously damaged” an external and internal set of entrance doorways made of glass. The north entrance of the Jerry Brockey Student Center was closed for several hours, and the missing sections of glass and door frame were boarded up:

By late morning, Swenson said they “were able to open the undamaged set of doors at the north entrance, so people can access the Brockey Center from the north. Load bearing pillars at the entrance were not damaged. Our facilities department is currently assessing the damage and working with a local glass supplier to get a bid. We do not have a solid timeline on the repair or cost at this time.” While they don’t have surveillance video of the actual theft, he said, they do have video of the truck that was involved, and we hope to have that for a Crime Watch update tomorrow.

8 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Drive-by car prowling, and more"

  • katerrific4 June 1, 2016 (10:32 am)

    Shaun, can you or your wife recall if the van was REALLY loud?  It looks almost identical to one driven by a man that we caught breaking into my husband’s jeep a couple months ago.  I wouldn’t have noticed the van on our street, except it was VERY loud, which drew my attention.  If I can confirm it was the same one, then I will follow up with police report we filed to make sure they can link the owner of the van with our car prowl as well.

  • Lesley June 1, 2016 (2:04 pm)

    I chased this guy in this van off from our street a few months ago as well.  The loud muffler woke me up in the 4am hour and I witnessed him trying to open doors from the driver window of the van.  I screamed at him and he drove off without taking anything.  I called 911 at the time.  So glad they confiscated this guy’s van.  I wish they would get him.

  • Chuck June 1, 2016 (6:55 pm)

    Excellent news about the impound. If he couldn’t afford a quieter muffler, I doubt he can afford to get his main tool for theiving back. That’s a win in my book.

  • Wsres June 1, 2016 (8:11 pm)

    I know this van. I am calling the police.

  • Susie June 1, 2016 (8:50 pm)

    This looks exactly like the loud van that hit a parked car at Dawson and California a couple months ago and fled the scene.  

  • Texas girl June 1, 2016 (10:12 pm)

    This van is regularly parked over night around the intersection of 42nd and Hudson.  It does make a very, very loud noise when started.

  • Stuart June 2, 2016 (5:47 pm)

    This van WAS parked at 42nd & Hudson on the evening of June 1st. I noticed it after reading this story.  Not sure it was the one impounded. It definitely was the loud one. Driver drove away around 10:00pm, with the loud ruckus it always makes….

  • Stuart June 4, 2016 (12:51 pm)

    The van is still parked on my street- 42nd & Hudson SW. Any updates if the owner/driver of van was arrested?

Sorry, comment time is over.