WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Two more package theft tales – and some kindness along the way

| Crime | West Seattle news

Two tales of package theft – and the first one turns out to be linked to an earlier Crime Watch report.

THIEVES ON VIDEO: From Emily:

We were out of town for Thanksgiving and 5, yes 5, packages arrived ahead of when they were scheduled. We got home Sunday afternoon Nov 26 and it took a day or so to sort out what happened. I then pulled our security camera footage.

At 8:12 am on Sunday, the thieves drove by our house in what appears to be an older model white Lexus sedan. Two men jumped out of the car (there must have been a third, the driver) and climbed up our front steps, over our gate, and took the packages. I don’t think they even noticed the cameras.

Our newspaper still being on the step and packages sitting out early, before most deliveries would occur probably signaled we were not home. Also, our dog (big loud) was with friends.

The positive in all of this was the fact that yesterday, Tuesday, I received an email and phone call from another West Seattle resident (someone near Schmitz park – we live in SW Admiral). He had found the 80 page Photobook created for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in a pile of leaves, recognized its emotional worth, and tracked me down via internet. Miraculously, given the rains, it was only slightly damaged. I picked it up from him yesterday.

Also, another good Samaritan (unknown person) returned one of the boxes (with its contents) to our door – the thieves had ripped open a corner, recognized what it was, didn’t want an Xmas wreath, and discarded it. We don’t know who did it, but THANK YOU.

And after sending that, Emily checked prior Crime Watch reports and discovered the “found star” item from yesterday – so she’s connecting with “Grandma and GiGi.” (By the way, one other item in that Crime Watch roundup is resolved – if you missed the comment, Ketsy‘s Land Cruiser turned up, near Lincoln Park, early today.)

PACKAGE THIEVES FOLLOWING TRUCK? From MW in the 7700 block of 17th SW: “Just a reminder for the neighborhood. UPS truck was getting followed by thieves today. Packages were stolen of our porch within minutes of delivery.”

Eric1 November 29, 2017 (10:06 pm)

Hmmm.. Taser strip on the top of your entrance gate? That would be entertaining and it might do the world a favor with stopping these thieves from reproducing. Since you have a dog, you can just claim it keeps the dog from jumping the gate….. Officer, I have a really big dog with furry paws, it needs to be set on ultra-high or he just jumps the gate and out onto the street.

Alki Resident November 29, 2017 (10:37 pm)

In a perfect world this would be awesome but not everyone has gates, fences. There needs to be felony charges for this type of crime. Nothing is going to change if laws don’t toughen up.
- artsea November 30, 2017 (7:22 am)
  
  I’ve been saying this for years since crimes like this keep getting more and more common. Just make the sentence a definite thirty years and see how fast such behavior stops. I’ll gladly pay some extra tax for more prisons. Just get these disgusting people off the streets.

Jethro Marx November 29, 2017 (11:52 pm)

Eric wants to have debilitating defensive measures deployed where an innocent sidewalker or the mailman could innocuously touch them, and Alki Resident’s perfect world apparently includes such grim measures, although she’ll settle for an almost perfect world where we throw people in prison for stealing a twenty dollar wreath. Are you sure?

Sounds more like a dystopian past or future than West Seattle to me, but hey, what do I know? Shall we cut off their hands like in the good old days? Will your average package thief emerge from prison after however many years ready to settle down with a good job and contribute to society? Of course, we’ll have to spend about $40,000 a year to imprison them, so that’s a tough sell, pragmatically.

These aren’t even in the realm of solutions; y’all are just saying $#& that serves your warped and rage-filled perspective on life, and its accompanying lust for vengeance. Not new: I remember when the rage was directed at the Jews. And the communists. And the Chinese railroad workers.

How about instead of trying to find cruel and exorbitant punishments we all just stop leaving valuable stuff unattended in plain view; we all know there’s plenty of jack@$#& eager to steal it. Not perfect, but easy.

oh, and what is a taser strip, anyway? Does amazon have them?

DH November 30, 2017 (5:11 pm)

Agreed. Thanks for posting!
OMG November 30, 2017 (7:09 pm)

Groanworthy…
SaveSeattle November 30, 2017 (10:16 pm)

So, Mr Marx – what would you have – just a free for all – packages left unguarded are free game and no consequence for anyone taking other peoples property? Is your chosen name an indication that you believe all property is community property? How do YOU propose to stop people stealing things in what should be a respectable community?
- Jethro Marx December 1, 2017 (8:24 am)
  
  We seem to have a free-for-all now; I don’t think we can really stop criminals from committing crimes, so I guess my proposal was stated as, “let’s stop leaving valuable stuff on our porches” since they are obviously getting stolen. My sympathy for the criminals only extends as far as not wishing cruel and unusual punishment upon them. This idea that people like me think property belongs to all is a phantom menace; no one has ever suggested that but some of you are dying to argue the point nonetheless. I just don’t think a suitable solution is rendering them sterile or locking them up in a costly and counterproductive way.
  
  My name is a riddle, but anyone who loves both flute-rock and Huxley’s fantastic future ought to be able to puzzle it out. It’s not about communism; that particular ideology has never existed without a brutal form of oppression exerted upon its subjects, which is closer to what is being suggested here than my reasonable and rather pragmatic approach to the problem.
Eric1 November 30, 2017 (11:58 pm)

LOL…. You mock me for my so called warped and rage filled perspective? Is may perspective warped because I realize that the city and county does nothing to stop “petty” theft and I realize we must fend for ourselves? You expect everybody to just think “wow, those two guys has it bad, next time I’ll add $20 in cash” and wishing for some less-than-lethal shock therapy as punishment for theft is rage and vengeance? (OK, I’ll give you vengeance) The Jews and the Chinese you mentioned did nothing wrong. These guys are not innocent.

.

The mailman isn’t going to straddle a gate to deliver packages, he is technically invited to your property so he will open the gate (electric fence type systems turn off when you open the gate). Innocent people won’t be coming up to a house 20 feet off the street and then straddle the gate to knock on the door. You are just making excuses on how hard working people should just accept that these poor fellows have been pushed out of their family homes by evil overpaid Amazon workers and they are just trying to feed their starving babies. What the video actually shows it that these two guys are young enough and fit enough to jump a fence and carry several boxes to their car. If they can do that, they can hold down a job just like anybody else, they are just too damn lazy.

.

Blaming people for leaving valuable packages on their porch to steal is like blaming women for being pretty and available to Harvey Weinstien. You forgot that the perps dumped the ugly $20 wreath which the homeowners got back, I am sure the other packages the thieves kept had prettier things in them. You expect that this family should suck it up because they have a nice house, they could afford a vacation and probably had a nice Thanksgiving dinner while these poor guys had to spend the weekend working at theft. Unlike you, I respect that other peoples time and money are worth something and that they do not deserve to have stuff stolen just because it was pretty and available to be taken. Perhaps you should show some empathy toward victims instead of perps because otherwise you are siding with Harvey.
- Jethro Marx December 1, 2017 (8:47 am)
  
  Geez, I didn’t know I thought all that stuff until you told me; life is funny like that. I don’t know anything about the family except that they were the victims of a common and unfortunate crime.
  
  As for me siding with the film guy, that would be some weird sh*# if I somehow connected him to this, huh? I see that you have already done that, and your hilarious logic is, “you either want petty thieves to be crippled by electric shock or you side with the rapists.”
  
  I’ve seen some funny news since our president advocated sexual assault, but this remains a strange turn of events.
  
  dateline: West Seattle
  
  AVOWED COMMUNIST JETHRO MARX
  
  HATES FAMILY WITH NICE HOME, WANTS TO
  
  PUNISH THEM FOR EATING TURKEY AND GIVE THEIR MONEY TO THIEVES,
  
  BUT LOVES ALLEGED RAPIST
  
  (kinda reads like a Breitbart headline, what?)

gxnx November 30, 2017 (2:16 am)

If you want to catch the thieves, just put a tracker and self explosive STINKIN dye in a box….

ImmaMom November 30, 2017 (6:58 am)

Worth noting that ups has delivered to my door very late the past few days -9:30pm. Seems to me like many may miss these late deliveries and would be a prime target overnight.

J November 30, 2017 (11:51 am)

Signing up for UPS’s free My Choice service allows you to set email alerts for packages and deliveries. If anything is shipped to the address you enter, you’ll know about it. I think FedEx has a similar service.

WSguy November 30, 2017 (9:05 am)

Any additional info on the car like a picture or license? There is a “nuisance house” on our street and one of the cars associated with it is a white lexus sedan.

Huck November 30, 2017 (10:02 am)

Dirt bags. No fear of cameras.

Mark Schletty November 30, 2017 (11:26 am)

Security cameras, lights etc. do no good as a deterrent because the thieves and vandals know that, once they are off the property, the Seattle cops won’t do any follow-up or investigation of small $ amount property crimes. It doesn’t matter if they are seen or filmed. Unless caught in the act and held for the police nothing will happen to them, and they know it. So you’re right. No fear of cameras.

D Del Rio November 30, 2017 (12:25 pm)

I never order anything and have it sent to my house, but for some reason I always get packages misdelivered to my doorstep. What would be the best remedy to get it delivered to the correct house? One of my friends tried doing the right thing by walking one of the packages to the correct house, and the owner started to accuse him of trying to take it if that makes any sense.

me November 30, 2017 (12:55 pm)

Why not send it to a post office and pick them up

wscitizen November 30, 2017 (1:24 pm)

can the victim of the package theft reach out to me at

wscitizen2017-nov ? I have further video evidence from this same day that will hopefully be helpful in catching these guys.

GlynB November 30, 2017 (2:54 pm)

so disheartening to see this! :-(

Mark November 30, 2017 (5:01 pm)

Depressing this ongoing theft problem, one of these days a homeowner will be coming home and catch the thief in the act and take matters into their own hands and someone could get hurt.

The SPD and court system need to create a deterrent before some one gets hurt. This is very frustating

Emily November 30, 2017 (6:59 pm)

We didn’t get a good shot of the car (to be able to catch a license plate), but here is one of the stills.

Our thanks to helpful neighbors!

wscitizen November 30, 2017 (9:28 pm)

I have more information about this car and the occupants, please contact the editor at west Seattle blog to put you in touch with me.
- Emily December 1, 2017 (8:55 am)
  
  Just sent an email! Thank you.

G December 1, 2017 (2:57 pm)

Be on the lookout for an older about a 93 Honda Accord indigo blue in color that sounds loud with very dark Windows. I live on 16th ave sw and have never seen this car but noticed it parked behind my car on the street and as soon as the mail was delivered to my door and I went outside to retrieve my mail and small package that was left, I noticed the car started up and left after seeing me collect my mail.

I have no proof that this car is one that is out following the mail trucks or stealing mail but it looked very suspicious to me.

Sorry, comment time is over.