WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Two car break-ins, one with a bag to watch for

| Crime | West Seattle news

Two car-prowl reports tonight in West Seattle Crime Watch, starting with this one from Erin in Upper Fauntleroy:

My car was ‘broken in to’ sometime between the evening of Friday, December 20 and the evening of Wednesday, December 25. They must have a fancy way of getting in to keyless cars because the driver door and trunk were in the closed position but not latched and there was no broken window or anything. Same thing happened to my parents a couple of weeks ago right across the street from me. They stole my prescription sunglasses and prescription regular glasses. Unfortunately, they also stole a teaching curriculum called Crucial Conversations out of my trunk that I forgot was in there. It’s a gray bag with red accents and either says VitalSmarts or Crucial Conversations on the bag… If anyone finds this bag around West Seattle, I would love to get the curriculum back!

And from Sarah:

Car break-in at around 5:30 tonight in the upper lot at Lincoln Park: it was the main parking lot, north end of park … nothing of value in the car. We would love to know if anyone saw it happen, though!

The report on that one has a preliminary tracking number of T19014495.

Dl December 26, 2019 (10:11 pm)

There was another break in @6pm near the junction as well. They did a drive by, broke in the car window and stole a wallet.

Tim December 27, 2019 (5:06 am)

On SW MIlls street overnight on the 24th/25th prescription sunglasses were stolen from my Kia Sedona. I do not know how they got in as well. I figured I must not have locked the door.

Erin December 27, 2019 (8:24 am)

I’m Erin from the first report in this article and I would have thought the same if my parents car hadn’t been broke in to so recently as well. Seems odd that all of us would be forgetting to lock our cars so conveniently for these thieves all at the same time. I feel like they must have a device like the people who get in to garages using one garage opener they can program to open any garage…. Who knows…

Kalo December 27, 2019 (9:28 am)

I’ve heard there’s a device that can be used by thieves to get into keyless entry vehicles. It is advised that those w/keyless entry cars double click the lock on their fobs when securing their vehicles. It disables the device being used by would be thieves to access your ‘lock code’.

Linda December 27, 2019 (10:51 am)

Kalo is correct. We keep our key fobs in a sealed metal box away from where car is parked. Another alternative is a mini Faraday cage for the fob – good to use after parking in a shopping center, too. Like this one: https://tinyurl.com/s6h4cf4

Joan December 27, 2019 (10:53 am)

This is why I’m afraid to leave my prescription glasses in the car!

Dana December 27, 2019 (11:47 am)

Westwood village area – This has happened to our truck 3 times this year. There’s never anything to steal, but they rifle through the bins and empty the garbage bag. I heard them the last time – 2:30am ish. Turned on the lights and yelled out the window. They took off. One person was driving a car, two guys were walking from car to car. At least that’s what it looked like. Interesting that there’s a device to get into keypad locks. I was wondering.

miws December 27, 2019 (11:54 am)

This is just pure, personal observation, which may be totally inaccurate, but the issue of thieves having electronic devices to unlock cars seems to have made a resurgence in recent weeks. A few years back, it seems like we were seeing all kinds of reports of those playing a part or, at least, suspected of playing a part in auto thefts. It seems like there haven’t been many of those reports for maybe a year or so. —Mike

Bertha December 27, 2019 (3:28 pm)

My sisters locked CRV was “boken into” on Queen Anne a couple of years ago with the crook’s fob. The responding officer(they actually came out and made a report!)said there were internet adds for “universal” fob’s that the crooks can use to get into most any car. The unfortunate reality is that there are smart crook’s that can figure out how to get into everything. Reminds me of a story on the news-probably 20 years back. There were a lot of car stereo theft’s. One man interviewd had put an expensive car alarm in to protect his stereo. The crook left the stereo and stole the alarm!!!

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