WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Burglarized business owner’s request

| Crime | West Seattle news

Another Morgan Junction business burglary. The report is from Subway proprietor Faraz, who hopes you’ll watch for one particular potentially dumped item:

I wanted to report that the Subway sandwich shop on California Ave SW was broken into last night around 2 am and the cash drawer was ripped out from the POS and taken. It did not have any cash in it so may I ask if anyone sees it discarded on a street somewhere, to please let me know?

The perpetrator turned off the main electric breaker to the building on the outside so it would be completely dark and then threw a rock through the back door to smash it and get in.

We don’t leave any cash in our drawers overnight and even though we have had upward of 20 burglaries of a similar fashion in the past year at our Subway shops in the West Seattle, White Center, Georgetown areas, this was the first time someone actually took the cash drawer.

(No surveillance images due to the power cut, Faraz says.) We’ll add the incident number when we get it.

wsperson February 28, 2021 (12:18 pm)

I think the part where it describes exactly how to break in should be taken out.

Graciano February 28, 2021 (12:35 pm)

Can a lock be put on the breaker box so this doesn’t happen again?
- bill February 28, 2021 (1:30 pm)
  
  Unsafe. In case of a fire the fire department needs to be able to turn off power.The smart move would be a backup power supply for the cameras and alarm.
  - Dave March 1, 2021 (4:36 am)
    
    The fire department cuts locks easily
hj March 1, 2021 (1:05 pm)

Ah yes, “security by obscurity.” Hide the problems instead of fixing them.

Concerned Seattleite February 28, 2021 (1:00 pm)

We are on our own. The city council has given up on the citizens. And before anybody says all big cities have crime, please consider that it doesn’t have to be so. There are many cities outside the US which are big and with very low crime rate.

JBrews February 28, 2021 (2:00 pm)

you are correct. Time to move for me!
- David Witcraft March 1, 2021 (9:15 pm)
  
  Visit first, I think you’ll find that these problems are disappointingly common
WS resident February 28, 2021 (4:05 pm)

Hate to be on that band wagon, but as a business owner robbed this year, badly- I found the people selling my stuff and NOTHING was done. Voting matters. This is happening so frequently in WS to business’ I feel like it’s daily. Coming from a very large city, never saw this much property crime. Gross.
Jones, T. March 1, 2021 (11:16 am)

I agree with you.

SeaSpade February 28, 2021 (1:10 pm)

while I will probably be proven wrong, what burglar thinks a business is going to leave cash in the drawer overnight?

2 Much Whine February 28, 2021 (3:25 pm)

Seaspade, you should have stopped your sentence at “what burglar thinks?” Not a lot of brain surgeons breaking into Subway shops.
- JES February 28, 2021 (4:17 pm)
  
  Brain surgeons are generally less affected by issues of systemic income inequality I would guess. I don’t think anyone wants to reach the point where breaking into a Subway seems like a reasonable option.
  - Question Authority February 28, 2021 (7:56 pm)
    
    Your take on the matter leaves out the potential reasons such as to feed an addiction and/or less likely just pure greed, nothing in the article says they dont have a well paying job as a reason to steal.
  - Didn’thavetohappen February 28, 2021 (9:21 pm)
    
    That’s quite insulting JES. And I actually know quite a lot of actual brain surgeons. All but one are a minority. Literally. Ben Carson is also brain surgeon. Stop justifying crime. You’re making this worse.
    - Rick_WS March 1, 2021 (9:17 am)
      
      Thank you for a solid and pointed response. “JES”: have you ever been on the receiving end of a theft? If not, your comments are meaningless.

Flo B February 28, 2021 (1:50 pm)

wsperson. That information-and other ways is already WELL KNOWN to criminals. Keeping quiet about their method of entry will stop…..nobody.

ACG February 28, 2021 (3:40 pm)

20 burglaries at the subways in this area in the last year?!?!? Good lord. Knowing you need to build into your business plan that your businesses will be robbed almost twice a month is ridiculous.

Robert February 28, 2021 (3:55 pm)

Purchase:1. Marine grade battery and charging accessories ($300.00). 2. (4) LED 500 watt spot lights ($400.00). 3. Install said devices.4. Wear appropriate eye protection and verify functionality.5. Problem solved.

Lance February 28, 2021 (4:09 pm)

Did they keep their cash drawers closed at night? I have always kept the empty drawers open so theives can see there is no cash and hopefully move on and leave. Especially so they don’t destroy the POS systems trying to get in the drawer or to take it.

Flo B February 28, 2021 (4:33 pm)

Jes. Soooo all someone has to say is “systemic income equality” and you want them to be excused for stealing because every bad thing they do is someone else’s fault and the crook is actually the “victim”????

crows knows February 28, 2021 (6:22 pm)

They didn’t say the person should be excused. They are making a point about social and systemic issues that contribute to problems of crime.

You can complain about crime and punish criminals all you want, but if you want things to change, what societal and systemic changes might we make so that fewer people become criminals in the first place?
- SeaSpade February 28, 2021 (6:41 pm)
  
  But, yes, Flo B, our district rep thinks that is ok and also wants to defund police. Believe there needs to be more “stick with the carrot”…right now the expected outcome of property theft and damage (all the way from POS drawers to catalytic converters to vehicle theft) is pretty much zero. You have to fix THAT first; to do otherwise means you have to eliminate every..single…systemic issue before you begin to see improvement, because there will always be someone more impacted. Plus, if you start catching people, you can understand better what the true issues were that drive them. Is it drug addiction? Is it homelessness not of their own choosing? Sure, we kinda think we have an idea, but we don’t really know and it feels like the city is throwing money at anything that moves in order to make themselves feel better.
  - CAM February 28, 2021 (8:04 pm)
    
    Literally no one thinks crime is “okay.” Even people who commit crimes don’t enjoy experiencing the impacts of other people commiting crime. Defunding the police has nothing to do with decreasing funding to investigate crimes that have already occurred, criminal justice facilities, probation programs, courts, prosecutors, etc. Instead (which I’m sure has been said ad infinitum but I’ll say it here) it is to take money from the police budget which was traditionally used to enable the police to have the resources to manage problems for which they are not trained and other people are better trained to provide services. If you went back 3, 4, 5, 10 or any number of years you could find numerous quotes from police officers in news sources talking about how they are asked to do things that they shouldn’t be and don’t have the training to do. That the reason people see bad outcomes is because police (according to the police themselves) are asked to provide services that other professionals are more capable of providing. And they are/were right. Nobody is taking away the police’s power to investigate robberies or assaults. And nobody is suggesting they should stop doing so.
  - Ian March 1, 2021 (2:18 am)
    
    So you catch up with the criminal and find out their back story. Then what? When police catch up with criminals they aren’t asking them what their backstory is until their 10th arrest. Even then there aren’t services available to force people to get help they might need. Criminals who get arrested don’t get to sit down and talk to a Dr. or therapist and you can’t make them deal with addictions. The judicial system will only act if there are guns involved, and sadly they usually don’t deal with personal problems criminals might be facing until they rise to the level of violence. There needs to be some jail time and incarceration needs to be reimagined. Private contractors should NOT be allowed to run prisons and we ought to make them more rehabilitative. Bottom line crimes can’t be allowed to go without a proper response which has to include jail time.
- Question Authority February 28, 2021 (8:03 pm)
  
  Quit allowing drugs to flood the streets and the theft to feed addictions will stop, you cut the head off the snake and it withers.

Yma February 28, 2021 (4:53 pm)

@robert wowwe had a smash & grab right there, 8am. Had just gone in. Teen frickin’ traumatized ( her stuff).so no – lights et al are not the answer.

wseaturtle February 28, 2021 (10:37 pm)

This sucks! I’m sorry this happened to your store Mr. Faraz….Too bad you didn’t have a couple of dobermans to greet him.

Carl Mulligan March 1, 2021 (8:36 am)

When will this end ?

Barton March 1, 2021 (10:10 am)

I am so sorry for the business owner, both because of the theft and because the first reaction of some is to sweep aside the impact on this business and our society and to seek to excuse the perpetrator, about which literally nothing is known, with potentially inapplicable claims of income inequality. Is there systemic income inequality? Yes. Should society and government work to eradicate that? Yes. Should that be used as a blanket justification for every crime? No. Good God, wake up Seattle voters – you cannot make this absurdity up.

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