WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Burglary, and pursuit, on video; tools stolen from job site

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports tonight:

BURGLARY, GETAWAY, CHASE ON VIDEO: Above is a screenshot from video recorded at Brandon‘s house as burglars were making their getaway Wednesday morning in the 3700 block of SW Thistle. While he also shared a video link from the burglary itself, the getaway is most dramatic – here’s the clip (not embeddable): The getaway starts with a vehicle showing up about :40 in; then watch the upper right for a passing vehicle whose driver backed up at 1:02 and pursued the fleeing burglars. Brandon says, “We’re lucky to have had the lady in the van give chase and then come back to wait at our house for the police; thank you, kind stranger, we truly appreciate your bravery”

As for the break-in itself, Brandon describes:

At around 2:45 am on Wednesday morning, the burglars saw that we were not home and stole our mail. They came back at 7:30 am to check if we were home, and upon seeing that their knocks on the front door go unanswered, the four of them broke into our home. Fortunately, the alarm system did its job and the criminals were only in our home for around 3 minutes. … Based on the coordination and dress, it looks like they had this burglary planned out. The vehicle they used (red Toyota Sienna) was stolen. After they left our house, a brave neighbor gave chase. They sprayed a fire extinguisher out of the car to try to shake her and managed to get away. The vehicle was later found abandoned with items from other burglaries in it.

Here’s the burglary video: As Brandon describes it – “Guy comes up from basement to open door for an accomplice (0:04), another guy enters side door (0:34) then leaves out side door (1:03).” Two more screenshots:

Brandon says that none of the items from their burglary have been found. If you have any information, the SPD incident number is 2017-252976.

One more reader report:

TOOLS STOLEN FROM JOB SITE:

At approximately 8:30 PM on Tuesday night, 2 men between the ages of 25 to 35 years old, Asian or Pacific Islander, driving a late-model black Mercedes sedan, were seen coming out of the residential job site next-door to our house on 4th Ave., Southwest below Westcrest Park. My husband yelled at them and they ran with their hands full of things and jumped in the car and sped away. License plate begins with BC. Luckily they didn’t get too much because we don’t keep anything on the site. But, they stole a red Sawzall box, heavy duty Bosch construction site boombox/radio, and some other small items, and maybe other things we just haven’t noticed yet. Have you seen these guys?

They didn’t get the full license plate number, unfortunately.

10 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Burglary, and pursuit, on video; tools stolen from job site"

  • Double Dub Resident July 14, 2017 (4:40 am)

    I’m so tired of these absolute worthless POS

  • Christine O'Brien July 14, 2017 (6:49 am)

    Your welcome!  I’m just glad no one was hurt  inside and disappointed I couldn’t get a clear read on their license.  But now when I drive now I look for that van. I told the cops it was smoke bombs but fire extinguishers does make more sense.  It wasn’t able to drive safely once they start doing that and it prevented me from reading their plates. :(   

  • Kelly July 14, 2017 (10:34 am)

    Wow, Christine!  I love how you noticed what was going on and then backed up with such great reverse style and followed them!

  • Al July 14, 2017 (11:29 am)

    Out standing work driver!!!!!  I love what you did!  I’ve done that before. Keep up the great work. 

  • Kravitz July 14, 2017 (12:13 pm)

    What a great neighbor you are, Christine! Thank you for being awesome and fighting the good fight. We all need to try and look out more for one another. I’m so very tired of reading about this petty theft crap on the blog, and people like the perps victimizing those of us that work our asses off to live here and care about our community. It’s all fun and games until the next victim defends themselves or their property with a weapon. Is it really worth it?

  • D Del Rio July 14, 2017 (1:13 pm)

    This upsets me so much. The majority of us work hard for the things that we have. Just to have somebody come in and take it is making my blood boil. I always hear that the majority of these robbers are drug addicts trying to feed their habit. At one time I had a drug problem, but I never stole anything from anyone. Luckily that has been over 25 years ago, and I turned out alight.  

    • Jean July 14, 2017 (1:27 pm)

      Congratulations on getting clean! I’ve met many addicts from working at Harborview. Being an addict doesn’t mean being a**hole.

  • Christine July 14, 2017 (1:28 pm)

    Komo did an interview so it might be on the 3:00 news or evening news.  Just a side note, I only followed them until they sped onto 35th.  Once they got onto 35th and continued blasting smoke at me and zoom through intersections I knew it would be dangerous to myself and other drivers to continue to follow them.   

  • KD July 14, 2017 (9:14 pm)

    Christine You ROCK!!! = HERO!!!   Awesome driving skills, so coooool! (I could feel your adrenaline and anger in the video) Btw, Metro Bus is hiring for drivers if you want!!! πŸ˜†πŸ‘πŸΌπŸšŒ

  • Closer Look July 17, 2017 (12:59 pm)

    It kind of looks like the additional burglar that enters at 00:34 and leaves at 01:03 may be female or a male with a pony tail tucked behind the ski mask.

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