WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Stolen delivery van recovered

| Crime | West Seattle news

Pat sent the report:

An Amazon truck and a police car showed up this morning at 51st and Pritchard to recover a stolen delivery van. The stolen van was found empty. Late Saturday afternoon two white delivery vans drove into the residential neighborhood just northwest of Admiral. Delivery boxes were transferred from one to the other. One van was abandoned; the second van left with the stolen packages and the two drivers. The recovery driver said the Amazon delivery van was stolen from Alki when the driver was making a delivery.

We don’t have an incident number for the original theft but the recovery is logged as 22-0069340. We reported last week on another delivery-vehicle theft, with that one resulting in an arrest and felony charge; the suspect in that case remains in jail.

CarDriver March 20, 2022 (5:38 pm)

WSB. Ant word on when and when on Alki the van was stolen?

WSB March 20, 2022 (6:06 pm)

Would have included that if we had it. Pat’s account of the recovery is the first we’d heard.

Greg March 20, 2022 (6:14 pm)

I took a photo of a suspicious person at 10:30am on the same day at 51st and Pritchard. Looks like I need to wait until Monday to give details to the non-emergency line (yay budget cuts).

Brian March 20, 2022 (6:30 pm)

What budget cuts?
- Greg March 20, 2022 (8:33 pm)
  
  The 10% SPD funding cuts in the 2021 and 2022 budgets in comparison to 2020
  - Neighbor March 21, 2022 (12:39 am)
    
    Was the 911 budget cut? I thought that was transferred to a different (dedicated?) department.
    - Greg March 21, 2022 (8:27 am)
      
      I understand that 911 is stably funded by surcharges on phone bills, in contrast to SPD’s non-emergency line which comes from SPD.
AMD March 20, 2022 (7:32 pm)

Once again, SPD’s budget was not cut. Intermittently waiting forever for the non-emergency line has been an issue for years.
- Greg March 20, 2022 (8:31 pm)
  
  That’s strange. I had understood funding had peaked in 2020 at $401.m, followed by $363m in 2021 and a sub-inflationary $365m in 2022.https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2021-11-23/city-council-cuts-seattle-police-budget-drawing-criticism
  - Derek March 20, 2022 (8:58 pm)
    
    And did you compare it to overall money available for budget? Did you not know there was a pandemic. Everything was cut back across the board. Percentages people!
    - Greg March 20, 2022 (11:03 pm)
      
      The overall city budget was flat in 2021 when compared to 2020.
      
      https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-city-council-adopts-2021-budget-after-months-of-political-turbulence-mayor-will-sign/?amp=1
      
      My point is that the budget was cut and the claims otherwise are false.
Jay March 21, 2022 (11:43 am)

If you talk to a cop (or call the non-emergency number and get through to a human) they’re going to tell you to call 911 for reports like that. That’s not what the non-emergency line is for. If it’s happening now and is a potential crime, it’s a 911 call. It’ll get routed to the people who need the info instead. It’s a misconception that it’s only for life-threatening emergencies.