In West Seattle Crime Watch – two reader reports, followed by five summaries from police reports:

FOUND BICYCLE: The latest “likely dumped” bicycle to turn up is in Gatewood. From Tracey:

Just wanted to alert the blog readers that a (likely stolen) bike was left in the alley between 38th and 39th just south of Warsaw yesterday [map]. It’s a smaller Schwinn Ranger, purple with turquoise accents. The seat is missing so for now we’ve just left it there. Hoping an owner might want it back.

FOUND ITEMS: Via e-mail today, from a reader wondering if it’s crime evidence:

Purse, clothing, fetish accessories, and used syringe found on pedestrian stairway leading from SW admiral to SW Spokane St. At 12:25pm on Sunday, Jan. 8th. Police notified.

The next five items are from the police-report files – the most recent Southwest Precinct report narratives made public online. They are from incidents December 31st and January 3rd. Our summaries are written from those five narratives:

CAR-PROWL ARREST: Around 8:45 pm on January 1st, police got a call about a theft and fight involving three people at 15th SW and SW Barton, with someone suspected to be armed with a knife. When police arrived, they were told it all started with a car prowler spotted inside a vehicle parked in the 9200 block of 14th SW. When asked what he was doing in the car, the person allegedly pulled a small knife out of his pocket, and then ran away. Another person came out and said she had taken photos of the suspect. A K-9 search followed and a suspect who matched the photos was found in the 9000 block of 15th SW. The report says that he was wearing a small backpack in which “officers located two multi-tools with knife blades, along with bolt cutters, multi-tools and a headlamp. All these possible car prowl tools were later placed into evidence at the SW Precinct. Also in the backpack officers located a keychain with two Subaru keys on it.” He turned out to have an arrest warrant out for another prowling case and was eventually booked into jail.

SHOT FIRED INTO STORE: A nighttime clerk was cleaning up just after 2 am on December 31st in the 9200 block of 35th SW (the business’s name and exact address are redacted on the report). The front door was locked. The clerk looked up and saw a “male,” his face covered, standing in front of the door, pointing a gun at the clerk, demanding that the door be opened. The clerk ran to another room and called police; just as they arrived in the area, the man fired a shot through the glass door and ran away. The first officer arriving heard the shot and recovered a casing. The clerk could only describe the gunman as “a possible black male, about 5’6″ and very thin,” no clothing description. Police brought in a K-9 team to search but didn’t find who they were looking for.

GROCERY STORE EMPLOYEE INJURED: Around 11:30 am on December 31st, police were called to the Junction QFC, where employees were reported to be holding a man down on the ground outside. They were told that the man had been “verbally harassing random customers,” as described in the report, and was asked to leave the store. He then hit a store employee with a full can of what the report identifies as “Steel Reserve, an alcoholic beverage.” The employee had “swelling and redness around his left temple … (but) declined medical attention.” The suspect, who was arrested, claimed he was assaulted by the store employee while trying to buy the beer.

BURGLARY #1: Last Tuesday evening (January 3rd) in the 7700 block of 30th SW, a woman called police to say that she had gone to check on the home of her deceased father and found a security alarm going off, then discovered the back door had been forced open, with pieces of its damaged frame on the floor. She thought some items had been stolen, though another family member said that couldn’t be confirmed.

BURGLARY #2: Also last Tuesday, a woman living in an apartment in the 200 block of SW Roxbury woke up that morning and, she told police, realized someone had removed items from her wallet. The report says her driver’s license, food-stamp card, money, and “a memento card” were missing. The wallet was under her pillow when she went to sleep but she didn’t notice or hear anything – nor was anything else disturbed. Police found no sign of forced entry.