West Seattle Crime Watch: From false alarms to porch pirates

| Crime | Gatewood | West Seattle news

West Seattle Crime Watch miscellany this midday:

FALSE ALARMS FYI: SPD has been busy this past hour. Two possible in-progress burglaries that drew full-code (lights and sirens) responses were subsequently to be false alarms, and we’re mentioning them in case you wondered: 9000 block 14th SW and 3900 block SW Ida.

Two reminders that package theft ramps up this time of year:

PACKAGE TAKEN, REPORT #1: The montage is from Lawrence:

Lawrence says, “This a-hole has been stealing packages in West Seattle. It would make my day to see him arrested and prosecuted. Case number 18-463462.” He didn’t include a location but the report number crosschecks to the 3700 block of SW Rose.

PACKAGE TAKEN, REPORT #2: Also in Gatewood, reported last weekend by Jessie:

My wife and I had a package stolen off our porch last night at 4:00 AM. We live in Gatewood, 3 blocks from Thriftway just off California. Our neighbors found the empty box in their yard this morning. Our Ring captured the video attached.

It seems like this would be someone local to the area since our house is off the main road… Want to make other neighbors aware of this person in the area, especially during this time of year.

they December 13, 2018 (3:36 pm)

It’s so sad to watch these videos of people stealing packages, the victims/home owners they will recover in most cases but still impacted. The part that is so sad to me is witnessing the act of taking the package, often you can see an effort to be oh so careful not to make to much noise while softly stepping away.

Sillygoose December 13, 2018 (4:07 pm)

This woman is in several neighborhood group alerts stealing packages.

justme December 13, 2018 (4:37 pm)

This makes me so mad. One of the problems is the lazy delivery people always leaving the package in plain site! I have had to talk to Amazon numerous times to try and improve delivery. Many homes have porches with areas or nooks which are not visible from the street where the delivery people can place them safely. I even have signs on my porch instructing where to put them, with large arrows, and they still place it right smack in front of my door. Even heavy stuff, while blocking the usage of my screen door from inside. I’m aware that some crooks follow the vans around to see where the packages are going, but many times they’re walking the neighborhoods to see what’s in plain view. It’s such a simple fix, and so hard to correct. Even with my obvious signage.

flimflam December 13, 2018 (4:54 pm)

i really dislike that the cutesy term “porch pirates” is what we call these thieves now…

Heartless? December 13, 2018 (4:59 pm)

These thieves need for a seriously BAD experience to happen to them. Just once!

WTF December 13, 2018 (6:08 pm)

Just once. :)

Marietta December 14, 2018 (4:01 am)

It’s not just new easily replaceable stuff from amazon that gets stolen- lots of gifts are still purchased in person by old ladies (my aunt for example) who shops all around her town for the perfect items, wraps and takes to the post office to ship (to my daughter for example). Or it may be an item that a family member has spent hours creating for a loved one, such as a quilt. A tremendous amount of energy and time and money expended. When these items are stolen, they are not replaced, but thrown in a ditch somewhere. How disheartening to have some mindless meth zombie steal that special family bonding experience away from an old lady and a child. It’s just very sad. I hate these jerks for what they do to people.

FedUp December 14, 2018 (8:20 am)

Has anyone else noticed that the Amazon Delivery people (not USPS, FedEx, or UPS) are no longe ringing your doorbell? Thieves love this since most people don’t get notices on their phone that says “hey your package was just delivered”. Hence why packages are left on porches all night. We need to keep calling Amazon and complaining about this. Especially this time of the season.

WS Resident December 14, 2018 (9:31 am)

Better solution to all of it: have packages delivered to your office! I have yet to work somewhere that frowned upon personal packages being delivered to where I’ve worked.

Heartless? December 14, 2018 (4:38 pm)

All these solutions proposed, “Amazon do this differently”, “have them delivered to your office” etc etc and they all seem to miss the real point…THIEVES committing crimes. Why don’t we start concentrating on punishment/deterrence for the THIEVES, change the laws, whatever we need to do, get a LOT tougher on petty crime is what I’m saying. By not doing so, we are enabling them!

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