West Seattle Crime Watch: Clerk ‘outguns’ would-be robbers; car prowlers hit convertibles…

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports to share. The first one was just published on SPD Blotter:

A store clerk chased away would-be robbers last night in West Seattle. On 11/23/13, at approximately 10:00 pm, two unknown masked males went into a store in the 8800 block of 9th Av. SW and pointed a gun at the clerk, demanding money.

The clerk recognized that the gun the suspects were using was a fake, so he reached down and brought his own gun up, telling the would-be robbers that his gun was “bigger.” The suspects ran out of the store, and quickly left in their getaway car. An area check for the suspects was negative.

And this reader report is from Jay:

Car prowls … in the 6100 block of Admiral. Two hardtops stolen from convertibles. Both were Mazda Miatas … Windows (were) busted to get in, but no attempt to take the cars themselves.

He says it happened overnight Thursday into Friday. We checked police reports and Tweets by Beat for other car-prowl reports in the past week:

*2 reported yesterday in Arbor Heights, one in the 10000 block of California SW, another in the 10000 block of 41st SW
*One Friday in the 9000 block of Fauntleroy Way SW
*One Tuesday in the 5400 block of 23rd SW
*One Monday in the 6900 block of Delridge Way SW
*One Monday at Fauntleroy/Cloverdale
*One last Sunday in the 7200 block of 12th SW.

If someone breaks into your vehicle – or tries – be sure to report it, even if nothing is taken. (Here’s how to file online reports about car prowls and certain other types of crime.)

ADDED 2:43 PM: One more car prowl to add – Dustin reported via Facebook message: “Car prowl 46th and SW Raymond St last night. Nothing in car to steal, but some damage.”

16 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Clerk 'outguns' would-be robbers; car prowlers hit convertibles..."

  • JBK November 24, 2013 (10:19 am)

    Someone broke into our Honda Civic last night in Seaview. They broke the drivers window, but nothing was taken other than the vehicle registration and insurance information.

    • WSB November 24, 2013 (10:27 am)

      Sorry to hear that! If you haven’t already reported to police, here’s the online-reporting link (as an option), which I was just going back to add to the end of the story above … http://www.seattle.gov/police/report/default.htm
      .
      TR

  • Curious November 24, 2013 (10:40 am)

    We have heard this before in the blog to protect the vehicle registration & paperwork re car as it has the home address, etc. on it especially if parking to go into theater and such. My question is how do we be sure we always have it in case asked….there is really no way to hide it in the car & I cannot imagine everyone being able to actually carry it with. I would certainly like some suggestions as I am at a loss after seeing what happened to JBK. I suppose the insurance card can be in a wallet/purse….Help is appreciated to figure this out. Thanks!!!

  • heather November 24, 2013 (11:23 am)

    Curious, I suppose, if you’re really concerned you could cut that info out of your paperwork as an officer will ask for a photo ID. Just be sure not to remove the vehicle ID #. I don’t have facts to back this up but I think the likelihood of theft going from car to house is pretty low.

  • wetone November 24, 2013 (1:06 pm)

    Here is an interesting little note on a car prowl incident we reported online to SPD on Feb.18 2013. We finally got an email back on Nov.10 2013. Unbelievable it took over 8 months before hearing back from SPD. So I take it that any info they give us on crime rate numbers might be a little off………

    Your online report has been approved and the permanent case
    number is xxxxxxxxxx.

    Please pardon the delay in approving your report. Technical issues have temporarily interfered with our ability to process some reports on schedule.

    Please note in the attached report that sensitive information has
    been replaced with *** in order to maintain privacy in emails.

    Thank you for using our online reporting system and please e-mail
    us with any suggestions you have for improving our system.

    Online Officer
    Seattle Police Department

  • buckwheat November 24, 2013 (3:41 pm)

    That clerk should receive a promotion! Awesome quote!

  • Bee November 24, 2013 (4:39 pm)

    The blog reported a while back that people were being watched going into Admiral Theatre & address info taken from the car & then house robbed. It seems like it was during the summer months….at least it does not seem like it was that long ago.

    • WSB November 24, 2013 (4:43 pm)

      Do you have more specifics? I don’t ever remember anything like that, and it would be pretty tough for criminals to go to those lengths, since there is no single parking area for the theater, and you wouldn’t know what movie they were seeing …

  • Leslie November 24, 2013 (4:59 pm)

    I think the incident they are refering to took place at a Redmond theater. The robbers were watching for people to go into the theater, breaking into their car, getting their home address and then going to the home and robbing it. It was reported in either the Seattle papers or Kirkland Patch, not sure which.

    • WSB November 24, 2013 (5:06 pm)

      Thanks. After editing the site for eight years (publishing 27,664 stories short and long – not counting all the stuff on the inside pages, like pet reports), I do have the occasional memory slip of something we’ve covered, but that just didn’t ring the proverbial bell. Here’s the story:
      .
      http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/146698285.html
      .
      TR

  • McGruff November 24, 2013 (9:53 pm)

    I’m not surprised that folks are pinching Miata hardtops. There is a very active racing community for these cars (legitimate sports car racing on closed tracks – not the street racing that’s afflicting some communities), and to compete, your car needs one of these hardtops. They’re getting harder to find. Miata hardtop theft has long been a problem in CA, but now it looks like thieves are casting a wider net. Moral: if you have an older Miata with a hardtop, garage or insure it to the hilt.

  • Anonymous November 25, 2013 (8:30 am)

    Good for the business owner in the first story. Hopefully they catch the could’ve-been robbers.

  • Elisaid November 25, 2013 (11:00 am)

    My boyfriends motorcycle saddle bags were prowled Friday night. All they got was a couple of face masks, gloves and clear eyeglasses. But it is still a violation and a pain to have to replace those things. The funniest item taken was a single glove. Also they didn’t touch the tools he habitually carried in case of emergency.

  • BlairJ November 25, 2013 (11:39 am)

    Responding to “Curious”:
    I cover up my name and address on the registration and then copy it. I put only the copy in my car. An officer will be able to verify who I am, but the registration copy is useless to a thief. I also redact my name from the insurance info that I keep in my car.

  • Michael Johnson November 27, 2013 (2:00 pm)

    My wife and daughter’s cars were the ones that were prowled at 10000 block of 41st Ave SW. A neighbor coming home late from work stopped them. He said they were stopped in the middle of the street with both doors open and the lights out on their car. He pulled up on them and they came out of my daughter’s car (wearing masks), jumped in their car and took off. He gave the police the license plate number.

    We keep absolutely nothing in our cars (my wife has a radio and cassette stereo, my daughter has a face plate she carries with her). So they got nothing, but we ended up paying a couple of hundred dollars to repair the windows they smashed .

  • AJMD November 27, 2013 (8:34 pm)

    Add one more Miata hardtop stolen over Thursday/Friday. Not sure what makes people think its okay to take something from someone else. Sad.

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