WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Three reader reports

| Crime | West Seattle news

Three reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

YARD THIEF: This report and security-camera image are from Andi:

Last night, June 10th, 2023, from 11:29 pm to 11:41 pm, there was a person in our yard who stole our bird feeder (most of it as he couldn’t get the post out of the ground). He also stole our potted tree but it was found across the street the next morning hidden under a tree.

Lastly, he moved our bird bath outside of our fence. He might have been coming back for the tree and the bird bath with transportation as they are both heavy. He was in our yard for a long time and appeared to be tracking our movements in the house and also tried looking in our windows. We are in the Morgan Junction south of Thriftway. We are waiting on a case number from SPD.

UPDATE: 23-909750.

CAR PROWL: Not far from there, Christian reports a car prowl early today:

4:30 am car prowlers in the Gatewood area near the elementary school. Got into my neighbor’s car that was unlocked. They were driving a black Jaguar SUV that police mentioned may be stolen.

STORE THEFT: From Christine:

My husband and I are West Seattle locals and frequent patrons of the Super Deli Mart (Barton + 35th). Recently there have been a group of 3+ teenagers who have been stealing from the store on multiple occasions (specifically handfuls of vape cartridges that cost $20 apiece). They seem to have an adult, or two, lurking half a block away (a man and a middle-aged blonde woman, one of which appeared to board the C bus concurrently to evade questioning), and we are concerned that this group may be stealing from other local businesses.

Christine says they also are reported to have harassed the store owner and customers. On behalf of the store owner, she sent this video of one theft incident.

(We’ll add police-report #’s for these incidents when we get them. Update: Added the # for the first one Monday.)

D-Mom June 11, 2023 (10:21 pm)

Curious to know if the teenagers are young, middle school? Wondering if it’s the same 3 or 4 kids who have been posted about and are causing issues with other businesses.

Christine June 16, 2023 (9:05 pm)

Thanks for that question, likely middle school or perhaps HS freshmen, best guess. We posted all this to the WSB as we were wondering if these kids have harassed other people or businesses as their behavior is striking and quite bold. The case number for this theft is 2023-163631, officer Letizia (badge number 6628). I also posted a second video of these kids stealing from that same day, given to me with permission by the Super Deli Mart owner (unsure why it wasn’t posted by WSB when I sent it in initially). Hope these kids get caught and have some consequences, their actions are terrible. Second video of theft

1994 June 11, 2023 (10:27 pm)

Super Deli Mart needs to move their product behind the counter or get a case with a lock on it. Rotten kids and adults who may be with them.Yard thief is a horrible guy! and creepy!

KW June 12, 2023 (7:53 am)

Watching the video, it looks like they are stored behind the counter, but easy enough to access if they’re not being watched. Such disappointing behavior. Hoping those kids will be held accountable.

PopASquat June 11, 2023 (11:56 pm)

If I were the Super Deli owner I would lock up the booze bottles and secure smoking items. The house that had yard thief on camera, didn’t the residents get some kind of real time alert that someone was in their yard while it was happening?

Audifans June 12, 2023 (2:36 am)

wow the camera is blocked big time from faces at a certain point in that store.

Chris June 12, 2023 (4:06 am)

Sorry about your yard thief. Makes us wonder if same one who stole multiple plants & rocks from our yard, which we reported to the blog & police. Glad you got a picture.

sam-c June 12, 2023 (6:31 am)

a 4th report. Though, just a little south of West Seattle. The Shorewood Market convenience store (26th and 106th) was robbed. A trucked backed into the storefront entry and stole the ATM. :(

WSB June 12, 2023 (4:26 pm)

We’re reporting that separately. The store was burglarized early today but it was hours after I published this roundup.

Frank June 12, 2023 (7:18 am)

Wow, my Van was stolen last year all my tools were stolen and the Van recovered hours later totally bare 3 miles from my home.

clinker June 12, 2023 (8:12 am)

15 year olds sheepishly stealing handfuls of addictive candy flavored drugs somehow seems right for 2023. Nobody should be selling this poison to any of our neighbors.

wsres June 12, 2023 (12:17 pm)

agreed. stop selling vaping cartridges and it won’t have a chance to be stolen. Vaping is a HUGE problem among teens.
- B June 12, 2023 (8:38 pm)
  
  Right wsres….so businesses can’t sell products to adults because children whose mommy and daddy don’t teach steal=bad, or leash them properly? Very typical Seattle response. The issue is these kids mother, who apparently lives near the store and doesn’t have the balls or respect to bring these kids in to the store to apologize. I’ve witnessed these kids multiple times and saw them w Mom after an incident so I’m sorry to say it may be case of a meth mom (let’s her kids ‘go to school’ by taking Metro where instead they just wreak havoc on WS). The mom needs to be held accountable bc she knows what they are doing. These are facts.
Christine June 16, 2023 (8:42 pm)

Not sheepish whatsoever. If you’d witnessed this in person, as we did, you might feel differently. I agree about vapes, but we’re talking about theft and racism, not nicotine addiction. Hard-working people are being stolen from, for years in fact (as this happened to two previous owners, though likely not by the same kids to be fair), and, in this case, the owner and us customers were verbally assaulted. These kids yelled things in front of us and our three-year-old son that I would rip his tongue out for if I were to hear him say something similar in 10 years time. All of us that support this business, and each other, do NOT want that for our neighbors, I sure hope you don’t either.

Pdavis June 12, 2023 (9:56 am)

Hopefully someone can get a picture of both the kids and the adult that are involved in the thefts ? If you lay your camera on its side on the car door where the window meets the edge of the door. …and put it on video and simply drive past them, then you can go through the video frames after ….frame by frame and pull out a picture of them without them even knowing that you took it..
turn it over to the police… or perhaps post it on the WSBI am wondering if the person who is disturbing the bird feeder may live nearby and have concerns about attracting rats ? Who knows? What is the motivation?

turtwigfan June 12, 2023 (12:15 pm)

these 3 teenagers harrassed me at the bus stop. they were yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs at me and then started yelling that i was racist. they had the cops called on them earlier that day for harassing stores and the police gave them badge stickers. they were screaming that i was assaulting them and me being a sexual assault survivor i was very uncomfortable. they kept saying “let me hit your vape and i’ll show you my penis”. i wish i was making this up. i had verbally said i wanted to be left alone. people would walk past and i would say loudly “please just leave me alone i’m extremely uncomfortable” and the passerby’s did nothing. i had about 6 people walk past, non of them even turned or batted an eye.

Cedar June 12, 2023 (1:40 pm)

Was this recently? I’m sorry you experienced that.
- turtwigfan June 12, 2023 (3:37 pm)
  
  this was yesterday around 5 pm at the Spokane and California ave bus stop
Melissa June 12, 2023 (1:44 pm)

I’m so sorry this happened to you. It’s awful that they assaulted you and that passersby did nothing. I wish that the cops weren’t too busy rousting the unhoused to help victims of assault and theft.
- turtwigfan June 12, 2023 (3:41 pm)
  
  it’s truly sickening that these kids keep getting away with things. they scream edgy things to seem cool, when in reality they just make everyone uncomfortable. i think it would be good to contact the near by middle schools so that their parents can be aware of what they are doing. i don’t think any parent would be okay with knowing that their child is making jokes about assault to people
Admiral Mom June 12, 2023 (2:03 pm)

I am so sorry. I would have said something. I saw them yesterday at two bus stops on California Ave and also saw them going in and out of 7-11On Friday I heard them yell out “I am a monster” “I am a rapist”. It really is disturbing and sad. If I see them on the street I avoid eye contact but if I see them harassing people, I will speak up.Did they appear to be high on something? I truly hope they get the attention and help they need before something really bad happens
- turtwigfan June 12, 2023 (3:43 pm)
  
  this was yesterday at the spokane and california stop. i had been avoiding them but the things they were saying directly at me were disgusting. they didn’t seem high at all. they’re just skate kids trying to seem cool by vaping and harassing people.

Deli Patron June 12, 2023 (7:24 pm)

These teens hit the Super Deli Mart AGAIN at 6pm!! They have no shame! I only heard about it now, unfortunately no camera footage yet. Does anyone recognize these kids? Which school(s) should we send footage to?

Westside Ollie June 12, 2023 (11:27 pm)

I would love to see the video footage or photos from today.

Yo Gabba Gabba June 12, 2023 (7:46 pm)

Yup. These teens are some sh*ts. Their parents have been looking for them, and warning business of their shenanigans. These kids are brazen and entitled little brats. I hope they find themselves safe at home before they pop off at the wrong of the wrong person.

GarrettWS June 12, 2023 (8:03 pm)

These kids have repeatedly harassed my staff and customers over at Meeples Games. Police don’t really seem interested in doing anything about it despite it being the same kids, wearing the same thing pretty much every time. Very awesome and cool.

B June 12, 2023 (8:55 pm)

I am now at the point of confronting them directly. There are two small boys probably 12 and 13, and 1 larger kid who acts as their lookout, maybe 15yo. We confronted them before and confiscated their skateboard to teach them a lesson. They cried to their mommy. Mommy didn’t have the decensy to walk them over by their ears and have them apologize to the Deli owner, who they made racist asian comments to, but they did come back asking for their board back. Mom stayed back and let them free. She is the issue with these delinquents. They are going to repeatedly do bullsh*t. THEY CAME BACK TO THE DELI AGAIN TODAY (!) and talked about where the Marlboros were as patrons I know listened in to them. They are dumb as rocks kids. They think they are smarter than they are. They really cannot comprehend how stupid they are bc they think they are so cool. CONFRONT THEM AND ASK TO TALK TO THEIR MOMMY
- Westside Ollie June 12, 2023 (11:57 pm)
  
  Is there video or photos from today? Would love to see them.
- Cedar June 13, 2023 (12:43 pm)
  
  I don’t believe these are the exact same kids as the above video. If you have the video I’d love to see it.