West Seattle Crime Watch: Business break-in; prowler on video; parking-lot scare

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

BUSINESS BREAK-IN: Emily reports this happened just south of The Junction:

The Northwest Association of Independent Schools was broken into at 3:07 am on the morning of July 13, 2016.

At that time a rock was thrown through a glass window of the storefront at 5001 California Ave.

The prowlers left through the front door after 8 minutes in the commercial unit of the Adelaide Building. They stole 5 laptops.

NWAIS is a nonprofit organization that serves and advocates for private, independent schools in WA, OR, NV, UT, WY, MT, AK, and British Columbia.

If you saw anything suspicious or have any information about the break in, please contact Julie McGuire at jmcguire@nwais.org.

PROWLER ON VIDEO: D “wanted to share this video of a house prowler I caught on our camera who was snooping around our front yard. We live in the Highland Park area near 14th SW and Cloverdale.” We haven’t been able to download the video for embedding so far, but just click that link to see it on Ring.

WESTWOOD VILLAGE SCARE: From Kate:

At about 5:30 or 5:40 this evening, I was leaving the Westwood Village QFC with my toddler. A tall white man with long hair and a large knife in a black holster followed us to our car. When I noticed he was following closely behind us midway through the parking lot, I looped back toward the store. He stopped briefly to look into the window of a parked extended cab truck, then followed again back toward the store (thankfully at more of a distance at that point). A security guard was standing outside so I told him what was happening. He escorted me back inside and notified the police. He then kindly helped me get safely back to my car when all was clear. He told me not to stay and wait for the police, so I left with my toddler thankfully safe and sound. I don’t know what happened after that. Hopefully they were able to find him and do something about it. He was easily identifiable because of the gigantic holstered knife.

nachobeaver July 13, 2016 (10:02 pm)

theres been alot of activity lately around cloverdale from 14th to 20th we had a person looking in windows yesterday on 18th then the girl last week breaking into houses on 17th/18th and multiple car prowls the last few nights it seems to be all different folks by the pics i have seen please be vigilant neighbors

Debbie July 13, 2016 (10:52 pm)

@ Kate – that sounds pretty scary! Glad you are both ok.

Double Dub Resident July 14, 2016 (3:38 am)

Westwood Village and particularly QFC needs to seriously tighten up the area on security. I’ve been to QFC multiple times where someone was either being arrested or was in the middle of getting caught shoplifting, or the person was threatening the employees, screaming at the top of their lungs, etc. It’s getting pretty ridiculous. If they don’t already have them, they need to start putting no loitering signs up, and if they already have them, they need to start enforcing them.

I’ve seen people follow people to their cars and aggressively ask for money. One time I watched this guy follow this young girl to her car and start aggressively asking for money from her to the point where it was obvious she was scared and I intervened telling the guy to leave, which he did.

Back in the day, Westwood Village was pretty much a dump with a lot of empty storefronts in it. They finally cleaned it up and remodeled it and made it pretty nice, but lately it’s been on the decline again.

As someone who has lived blocks away from Westwood Village for almost 16 years, this began about the time Nickelsville was down the hill and has continued with the Rapid Ride Transit hub.

Double Dub Resident July 14, 2016 (3:39 am)

And BTW, I hope the police caught and arrested this guy and confiscated his knife.

SMC 12A.14.010 Definitions.

The following definitions apply in this chapter:

A. “Dangerous knife” means any fixed-blade knife and any other
knife having a blade more than three and one-half inches (31/2″)
in length.

B. “Fixed-blade knife” means any knife, regardless of blade
length, with a blade which is permanently open and does not fold,
retract or slide into the handle of the knife, and includes any
dagger, sword, bayonet, bolo knife, hatchet, axe, straight-edged
razor, or razor blade not in a package, dispenser or shaving
appliance.

Junction Lady July 14, 2016 (7:33 am)

You know the area is going downhill when you feel compelled to frequently look back over your shoulder.

Sue July 14, 2016 (11:05 am)

I used to go to Target at Westwood Village all the time, often late at night before they closed. I never felt unsafe there as long as I observed a moderate amount of awareness of my surroundings like one should do anywhere. But then things started changing, and people started sharing stories like this. I stopped going late at night unless I had to. I would go right from work instead, during daylight hours. But now this happens in broad daylight. I’m more inclined to have items delivered to me now as opposed to heading over to Westwood Village. But this is also becoming true of other places with people becoming more brazen – the news about the person attacked at the Trader Joe’s – I find myself on a whole different level of awareness in that lot than I ever did before. I grew up in New York City, so I’m no stranger to watching my surroundings, but much of the time I feel less safe here than I ever did back home.

Alan July 14, 2016 (2:40 pm)

I just noticed this SPD tweet:

http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2016/07/14/man-in-distinct-orange-car-arrested-after-trying-to-lure-12-year-old-girl/

In north Seattle, SPD arrested a 50-year-old male with a large fixed blade knife. Kate indicated the man she encountered had a “gigantic holstered knife” which I took to be a fixed blade, so I’m wondering if there is any chance it was the same guy.

WSB July 14, 2016 (3:12 pm)

That would have been five hours before what happened to Angela … and SPD says he was booked into jail … even if he had bailed out immediately, five hours between incidents is generally not enough time to be booked and released …

Alan July 14, 2016 (4:39 pm)

I missed that the N Seattle incident didn’t happen today. I saw Wednesday, but it didn’t click. You are right, I certainly hope, that he wouldn’t get back out that fast. The mention of the knife just seemed so unusual that it seemed like a possible match.

Double Dub Resident July 14, 2016 (3:37 pm)

There’s POS, and then there’s THIS POS in the orange car. As someone with a young daughter, I hAve absolutely no compassion or mercy for someone like this. Please give this POS the maximum and then some

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