In that photo is a Hyundai stolen overnight downtown, found by police early this morning in Sunrise Heights. The texter who sent the photo, a resident near Walt Hundley Playfield, also explained what preceded it:

Woke right at 6 am to sounds of cars racing and maybe crashing. Go out to see a blue Hyundai sedan with 3 teens and a white Hyundai or Kia (small) SUV with maybe 4 teens in it, flying by, chasing each other, losing or tossing items from the vehicles. They raced up and down the blocks, sorta chasing each other like they were playing tag. As they went by, one kid yelled to me from the SUV something about a shotgun and something about a day off (weird). I called 911. At one point one of the cars came flying out of the alley next to my house, off gravel onto the paved street, at about 35-40 mph, nearly crashing into the park. Then both cars met up, sped off, and I thought I heard a crash in the distance. I got into my truck and drove a couple of streets over to see what happened and the blue car was pulled over by SPD. It’s the one that I thought crashed. Cops still have the car, punched ignition … they say likely it’s a yet-to-be-reported stolen vehicle. The white SUV was gone. It had Texas plates. Both cars had teens with hoods up and masks on, all of them. Some male, some female, is my guess based off the laughing I heard …

That was all from a text around 5:30 am. We subsequently asked police what their report said about how this all turned out.

According to the report’s narrative, they initially responded to a call about a hit-run crash near 31st/Myrtle, and as the texter told us, “The call was updated to show that a blue Hyundai sedan and a white Hyundai SUV with a Texas license plate were chasing each other. As I was driving to the last known location of the vehicles along 32nd Ave SW, I saw a blue Hyundai Sonata with the running lights on and a wheel on the curb. … The vehicle appeared unoccupied but I did a PA callout, then the other officer and I cleared the vehicle. No one was inside. Dispatch ran the license plate number. This vehicle had not yet been reported stolen, but based on the steering column and ignition damage, I suspected the vehicle was stolen.

They called the vehicle’s owner, who told them “he usually leaves the vehicle parked in a garage at work but he went to Oregon and came back late last night, so he parked it in front of his apartment building at 1XX Taylor Ave N. [near Seattle Center]. He last saw it about (10 pm Monday night).”

The owner came to West Seattle to try to reclaim his car. Inside it, besides various items – including a plastic cup and a charger – that didn’t belong to him, police also found a print on the rearview mirror, which the owner confirmed someone had moved, so it was dusted and the print was lifted for evidence.

The owner tried to drive the car away but its front suspension had damage preventing that, police wrote, “so he parked the vehicle and called his insurance company … (to order) his own tow.” Before that, though, according to the police report, they gave him a free steering-wheel lock.