WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Hit-run rampage trashes neighborhood

| Crime | West Seattle news

1:33 PM: The images are from William, one of several people who have emailed about this early-morning hit-run rampage:

At 3:30am today someone driving a Hummer H3 decided it would be a good idea to turn off Hinds onto 37TH AVE SW, and take out just about every single recycling/trash/yard bin with his vehicle between HINDS and HANFORD (just the one block). Scared the heck out of many of my sleeping neighbors. The person purposefully missed all cars, and any bins surrounded by cars were skipped.

Here’s some of the aftermath:

Lenora said the driver appeared to be a woman, and included these details:

It’s clear that one waste can must have been caught under the car’s bumper as it was flattened. It was the noise of it being dragged up the pavement that awakened us all. We saw the driver get out of her car, on Hanford, and assess the damage about three blocks west of here. She drove away before we could get close enough to get license plate info.

I understand that there were reports that some neighbors on 37th had cans that were hit as well. Our Hanford neighbors reported this information to the police.

We don’t have the report # yet but expect to add a bit more to this later.

ADDED 3:26 PM: The report # is 20-183602. You can hear – and see the end of – the driver’s rampage at the end of this clip forwarded by Lenora:

MONDAY NIGHT NOTE: Neighbors discussing this further and comparing notes tell us the woman who got out of her car to “assess the damage” was NOT the driver who DID the damage.

TUESDAY MORNING NOTE: We’ve heard from a West Seattleite who happens to drive a black H3 with front-end damage inflicted in a crash last week (see photo in our comment below) and is NOT the driver in this crash, which he heard about when a buddy called him yesterday about this story.

Hi June 8, 2020 (2:13 pm)

A black h3 hummer can’t be too difficult to identify, it would seem.

Matt June 8, 2020 (3:54 pm)

Came here to say this. If they live in West Seattle there can’t be very many registered over here. You don’t see many Hummers of any kind on the road anymore.
- Also John June 8, 2020 (7:28 pm)
  
  A mechanical piece of junk vehicle.
TH June 9, 2020 (5:02 pm)

I have a piece of the front bumper, it was left behind after they hit my neighbors and my bins. I also filed a police report. If anyone finds a round black garbage barrel it is our neighbors, I could not find it on Monday morning.
B June 10, 2020 (8:54 am)

This looks like a Jeep Wrangler instead of a Hummer H3.

Mj June 8, 2020 (2:21 pm)

On the bright side vehicles were not damaged other than the perps, just reward for this stupid behaviour.

heyalki June 8, 2020 (2:47 pm)

“(s)he hates these cans! Stay away from the cans!”

aRF June 8, 2020 (6:02 pm)

“More cans!”
Bryan J June 8, 2020 (6:04 pm)

Don’t be a Jerk. 😉And thanks for a good laugh!!
- heyalki June 9, 2020 (8:14 am)
  
  Ha! I’m glad someone got the reference! :)
Clank... June 8, 2020 (6:23 pm)

… but, such wonderful sounding glass/asphalt clanking!

Diane June 8, 2020 (2:54 pm)

holy crap, this is my corner; I was still awake but heard nothing

miws June 8, 2020 (4:09 pm)

Diane, I thought about you when I read the location… —Mike

Sarah June 8, 2020 (3:20 pm)

I hope this person is caught and added to a highway cleanup crew.

onion June 8, 2020 (3:26 pm)

Interesting to know what was going through her mind. Also interesting to know whether she was acting on her own, or whether someone else was in the car with her.

Ice June 8, 2020 (11:47 pm)

I sat here thinking about the same thing for quite a while. This is such unbelievably weird behavior. Maybe this person gets some kind of weird thrill out of smashing into trash cans and watching the shit go everywhere. Maybe they were trying to impress someone by asserting their dominance over the trash cans. I dunno. I wonder if this person has any concept of how asinine their behavior is. The same things happened to a trash can in front of my house when I was growing up so there are other people who do this too.

Anonymous Coward June 8, 2020 (3:58 pm)

For what it’s worth, at about 5a this morning a vehicle matching that description was stopped while headed south on Avalon in the northbound bus lane and surrounded by a several police vehicles. I checked a bit later and the only remaining vehicles were a tow truck and the Hummer.

William June 8, 2020 (5:19 pm)

I’d be interested to know more about this. WSB?
- WSB June 8, 2020 (5:35 pm)
  
  No idea, there’s nothing on Tweets by Beat re: Avalon for this morning. If it were related to this call, it’s the same shift, so the officers certainly would have been able to make the match.

flimflam June 8, 2020 (4:16 pm)

what a serious #$^&hole….

anonyme June 8, 2020 (4:39 pm)

It’s too bad Covid doesn’t target the terminally stupid.

Joe June 8, 2020 (6:19 pm)

Just saw a car in the Morgan Junction matching this description with front end damage. Reported to SPD. Was missing front license plate.

William June 8, 2020 (8:19 pm)

Did you get a picture of it?

zipda June 8, 2020 (7:58 pm)

Anti recycling taken to new extremes I suppose.

Eric June 9, 2020 (9:39 am)

Did anything come of this? Seems like something easy to determine, especially if parts of the bumper were left behind. BTW, on 37th where this happened (mostly), cars can only park on one side, hence why the focus was on the other. Sad that someone thought this was fun, because it was a mess for everyone the next morning.

WSB June 9, 2020 (10:12 am)

P.S. to Joe’s comment above: That was a West Seattle resident whose black H3 suffered front-end damage – and who suffered serious injuries – in a crash on I-5 one week ago. They sent us a very detailed, but good-humored, note, including “(I was wondering why that couple ran into the street pointing at me as I drove away.. ?!) Seriously Grateful for alert neighbors, tho.; Likely would have assumed/done same.” And they included this shot of their car from right after the I-5 crash: