WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Stolen green Jeep Cherokee and white Astro van; lock-cutting; scam-call alert

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports:

STOLEN GREEN JEEP CHEROKEE: From Mell:

My 1992 green Jeep Cherokee was stolen from my house at 11 am today. 6900 block of 23rd Ave SW. License plate #971ZOQ.

If you see it, call 911.

(ADDED 7:17 PM) ANOTHER VEHICLE THEFT: From K:

2001 Chevy Astro van, white, license plate BOS1964 stolen from 4500 block of 45th Ave SW on Saturday night the 28th or Sunday morning. A couple of distinctive features, cracked windshield and dented front bumper. If found, please call 206-276-8233, and the police stress that if you see someone driving it, don’t confront the driver, just call 911.

MORE LOCK-CUTTING: From David:

We are having a small addition put on our house (in the 4100 block of) 48th Ave SW between Genesee and Dakota to which our contractor has a small lockable trailer parked in front of our house. Last night someone cut one of the two locks but must have been thwarted by a car or a person, very upsetting to see this morning. If anyone has seen any suspicious activity or persons in the Genesee Hill area, it needs to be reported.

Notably, that’s only a few blocks from this lockbox-cutting burglary attempt last week.

SCAM CALLS: Mike emailed to say, “Just thought I would mention that the scammers pretending to be from City Light are back. It deals with power being shut off if bill isn’t paid in 30 minutes. A reminder: Do not call the phone number they give, as it is not City Light’s number. And here I sit an hour later with all my lights on :)”

In fact, City Light tweeted something along those lines this morning:

Scammers are at it again! Remember, City Light will never:

❌Call demanding immediate payment
❌Call on the weekend
❌Shut off service without written warning in advance

Learn how to spot scammers, report scammers and stop scammers: https://t.co/hcWnRlO7up pic.twitter.com/T4O7U3W85i

— Seattle City Light (@SEACityLight) December 30, 2019

Chris December 30, 2019 (4:32 pm)

Thank you. We have received the scam calls on two different phones, twice on one. We realize they are scams and thank you for reminding people. It must work or they would not keep doing it.

AMD December 30, 2019 (5:24 pm)

It’s bad this season. I’ve gotten calls on two different phones as well. Seattle Public Utilities and Puget Sound Energy both have messages about the scam calls when you call them. Next will be the IRS scams. *sigh*

E December 30, 2019 (8:27 pm)

I received the scam call this morning. It was a recorded call, sounded official and has you call 866-204-6080. The prompts are very believable. The thing that seemed not likely was that they said they would cut your power off in 30 minutes. The person that came on was less believable as was the amount they said I owed. I looked up my account while I had them on the phone and figured out it was not legit. Be skeptical.

Azimuth December 30, 2019 (9:11 pm)

A couple months ago they tried it on me using a live person. The tricky part was they spoofed the real SPU phone number on my caller ID. It felt weird so I ended up going on the SPU site and called their main line and they said I didn’t have an imminent shut down, and was being scammed. Awful people.

Trickycoolj December 31, 2019 (1:28 am)

I’ve gotten the city light call recently and I have an Olympia number. Always hang up (or let go to voicemail) and look up the direct phone number rather than call back the stated number or missed call number. Utility, bank or anything that seems out of the ordinary! There are videos of people who bait scammers on YouTube, you can really learn all the tricks they use if you watch a few of the “scambaiters” it’s quite amusing!

Lola December 31, 2019 (10:36 am)

We got the City Light Scammer call twice yesterday on our Landline, it went to the voice mail machine as my husband does not answer numbers he does not recognize. It was a Robo Sounding voice that left the threatening message that our power would be cut if we did not call back within 30 mins. We live around 50th & Alaska.

Rick January 1, 2020 (9:25 am)

I’ve also started getting those again at my business # here in WS. Had quite the rash of them a couple of months ago on both business and personal #’s. Up to 3 times in one day. Got a few from PSE too. (Own a home in Port Orchard)

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