WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Business burglary; another dumped-in-greenbelt vehicle; 1 block hit twice by catalytic-converter theft; 2 packages stolen

| Crime | West Seattle news

Here are five crime reports we received today:

BUSINESS BURGLARY: El Chupacabra on Alki reports a break-in early today, and says it wasn’t the first:

Early Sunday morning, El Chupacabra Alki was broken into by 3 individuals. We were broken into 2 weeks ago and believe it may be the same group.

If you have any information for police, refer to incident # 26-030686.

ANOTHER ABANDONED VEHICLE: An apparently dumped vehicle has turned up in the West Duwamish Greenbelt, for the second consecutive day, Brian reports:

Joining yesterday’s van is yet another dumped vehicle in the Greenbelt this morning. The trails and fields are also becoming a muddy, rutted out mess and it’s a sad trajectory this usually peaceful space is on.

CATALYTIC CONVERTER THEFT: Another reader reports, “The catalytic converter was stolen from our 1984 Toyota truck this morning. Our neighbors, whose newer Toyota had its catalytic converter stolen last week, heard sawing at 4 am this morning and saw it was our truck. We are on the 5400 block of Beach Drive, and a police report has been filed.” (Here’s the report from a week earlier.)

PACKAGE THEFTS: Finally, two package-theft reporters, with video. First, from Lerah:

A package was stolen from my front door this morning at 8:31 am in the 9000 block of 17th Ave SW.

Second, from Michelle:

We were hit by a porch pirate on Friday, 1/23/26 in broad daylight in the North Admiral area, on a dead-end street no less. The individual walked up our front steps carrying an empty cardboard box, set it down next to the much larger box filled with over $400 worth of human-grade frozen dog food (our pup’s food stock for the next month), which he nonchalantly picked up and turned tail back down the stairs with. Someone replied (on the Ring network comments) that someone with a similar build also stole their package the day before, and was seen leaving in a red truck. Not sure anything will come of this, but due to the value of the stolen merchandise, I just wanted to put this out there for attention.

The SPD report # is 26-901956.

WSlocalcitizen February 2, 2026 (7:10 am)

Anyone recognize these guys?

Shadowtripper February 2, 2026 (7:28 am)

Cameras on the street would certainly help track and identify these criminals. Our small businesses cannot be expected have their property and lives disrupted repeatedly by these gangs of criminals. We don’t have the police force that can patrol all the streets, all of the time. Cameras can.

Dog Whisperer February 2, 2026 (7:53 am)

It might be time to do something.

GH February 2, 2026 (8:21 am)

The earlier post on the abandoned vehicles mentioned a broken gate? Is that the gate along Highland Park Way as it passes through the greenbelt?

Dog Walkers February 2, 2026 (9:17 am)

My husband and I were walking the dogs along the greenbelt trail around 4:30pm yesterday, and only noticed the van; the truck was not there. There were also noticeable tire tracks on the trail, and the trail was much wider than at any previous time we had been there. We assumed the vehicles were not coming from the direction of the ballfields.

dwg February 2, 2026 (9:45 am)

The lack of a lock on the gate @ this greenbelt has been a known issue for some time now. Surely, the city realizes it’s 100x more expensive to tow abandoned vehicles after the fact, than to expedite the process of getting a functioning lock installed, right?

bill February 2, 2026 (10:19 am)

The placement of the camera, with so much bright sky in the frame, helps obscure the the second porch pirate’s face.If it is any help here an enhanced frame. Someone with professional image manipulation tools could probably do a better job.

waikikgirl February 2, 2026 (10:58 am)

Do you know if these vehicles are stolen or just being dumped there for whatever reason?

S - Neighbor to West Wood February 2, 2026 (2:05 pm)

I had my gas tank drilled out for a second time just this weekend. Things are not getting better here in Seattle, they are getting worse.

Laura February 2, 2026 (3:26 pm)

This has GOT to end. SPD has a crime prevention training for large or small group, in person or virtually. They offer “neighborhood crime prevention” and more. Think any of the WS neighborhoods would be interested? I’m in Admiral and would attend. I’d even set up the meeting with the SPD coordinator.

Patrick February 2, 2026 (7:49 pm)

Why have catalytic converter thefts suddenly turned back into an issue? I thought that the laws they passed 4 years ago made it virtually impossible to get paid for them.

brandon February 3, 2026 (9:02 am)

Reply

Patrick, the Precious Metals market has seen a huge increase in value recently, speculation type prices. So its back on for metal thieves and the paydays.
- Patrick February 3, 2026 (7:49 pm)
  
  Reply
  
  Oh wow, that is unfortunate.

brandon February 3, 2026 (9:03 am)

It appears our Mayor and City Attorney need to come to this attention.

Scarlett February 3, 2026 (2:03 pm)

America has deteriorated into a Darwinian “jungle” where the only things that matter are self-preservation and self-interest, from the lowly porch thief to the corner office CEO.