West Seattle Crime Watch: Stolen car; package theft on video

| Crime | West Seattle news

Two reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch:

STOLEN CAR: Emily‘s silver 2010 Nissan Altima, plate AXL5242, was stolen sometime between 2 am and 11 am Saturday in Delridge. As the @getyourcarback tweet says, call 911 if you see it.

PACKAGE THEFT ON VIDEO: Two clips from an Admiral resident’s security cameras, plus the backstory:

Here are the pertinent details.
1. We live in North Admiral near 41st and Holgate.
2. We found an empty box on our porch (Saturday) morning with a note from a neighbor saying, “We found this on our lawn.”
3. The box had been addressed to us, but was ripped open, the items removed and then the packaging was discarded in our neighbors yard.
4. We used the tracking number to find out it had been delivered to us Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the box and take it inside when we got home Friday night.
5. We have video cameras installed, so we reviewed the video and found that at 3:39 AM (early Saturday morning), a car drove by our house, the turned around and returned. A young woman got out, came through our gate, walked up to our doorstep and took the box.

We reported the incident to the police and have the entire event on video, so wanted to share it with you. If anyone can identify the thief or the car, please let us know. It would be great if we can stop these criminals before they steal from other people during this holiday season.

Some alternative tips for delivery are among the police recommendations for deterring package theft.

Eric December 6, 2015 (12:34 pm)

Man, I’m so tired of the self entitled POS. Oh, you have stuff? I want stuff, so I’ll steal your stuff. I hope karma kicks these people in the head

Mike December 6, 2015 (1:23 pm)

Was the value over $1000? A felony would be something SPD and possibly the feds would be interested in. If not, there’s little any law enforcement will do and the crooks know it.

Jimn P. December 6, 2015 (1:25 pm)

Even if they get arrested, they will likely be back out in 24 hours or so as the bail will be low to non-existent (“Recognizance”.

Be nice if they could be legally held until after the “busy Holiday stealing season” is over.

Something to consider: If someone does get arrested and convicted, file a civil lawsuit against them for trespass, theft of chattels etc.

Ties them up further and if you win, you have a 7 year hunting license on their assets and income.

Keep the amount to Small Claims Court and you won’t even need a lawyer. Quite likely they won’t even show up and you’ll win by default. You can then sell the judgement to a collection agency for a pittance and they will make sure someone’s credit is ruined.

WSB December 6, 2015 (1:33 pm)

Before discouraging people with generic statements, folks, please note that you never know who or what have been captured on video. Might be somebody wanted on a warrant. Many other possible circumstances. Thanks to Jim for the interesting side note, and thanks to everyone sharing crime reports here – where not only are they seen by your West Seattle-wide neighbors, they also are seen by some police (unlike walled social-media services) – that’s no substitute for filing a report but it does compound the usefulness in a variety of ways. Which reminds me that I need to write about the charges filed against the guy caught in a stolen car after the 7-11 holdup last week … TR

sara December 6, 2015 (2:34 pm)

We had a delivery stolen off our front porch December 3. Contained clothing. Neighborhood near Gatewood Elementary. Sending all packages to my workplace from now on.

S December 6, 2015 (3:00 pm)

Ok everybody, next time you get a package, bring it inside, remove the contents, tape it back up, and put it back out on your porch. In about 10 days, only 10% of packages on porches will have anything in them. I think that would cause these thieves to stop.

Lump of coal December 6, 2015 (5:08 pm)

A few ideas for what to put in the carefully resealed box on your front step:

1. A fresh collection of dog poop. Inside an inner box from an expensive camera, iPhone, etc.

2. A super heavy bunch of rocks or bricks – make the box super attractive, but picking it up and running off with it would be more challenging, giving someone time to see the jerks in action.

3. An old broken piece of something you were going to toss anyway. Like your old flip phone circa 2002, also in the box for a new something or other.

4. Some contraption that makes noise when moved. Like a fart machine, etc. Preferably something really loud and obnoxious.

Let’s keep this going – I’d love to hear more creative ways to fight back against these lowlifes. I’ll even give some of these a try.

steve December 6, 2015 (7:55 pm)

I just sealed up a 25 pound bag of compost/food scraps. Ready and waiting for them. Looks like a stereo from Amazon.

M December 6, 2015 (8:41 pm)

Is it possible to purchase exploding ink like the banks use to put in a resealed package?

sophista-tiki December 6, 2015 (9:17 pm)

please combine the exploding ink idea with the the dog poo

Alan December 6, 2015 (10:57 pm)

I would be careful on booby-trapping anything. If you were to injure someone, you would likely be in more trouble than the thief.
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That being said, a mento-coke bomb seems safe enough, especially if it is carefully housed inside an amazon box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Q2qNEpkLg
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You could try adding some dye to it. Dog poo might lessen the eruption, but perhaps increase the satisfaction. Keep in mind that this will likely happen quickly enough that the box will be thrown back at your house.
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Don’t forget to share your video, should it work.

Trickycoolj December 6, 2015 (11:41 pm)

How about a package of bees?

And definitely very fine glitter.

Eric December 7, 2015 (7:37 am)

Um yeah, booby trap a package so when the criminal who tends to do criminal things gets PO‘d about the “prank”, they’ll come back and do some more criminal things, like vandalism or worse

LS December 7, 2015 (9:33 am)

Add cayenne to the mixture, effectively making it a little like pepper spray. Fun to think about, but I wouldn’t do it because of being afraid they’d do something really bad to my home.

j December 7, 2015 (9:44 am)

I’m going to fill my poo container with water so it leaks all over them and their car

mrsMarty December 7, 2015 (11:21 am)

I agree with Eric….don’t stoop to their level because like Eric says they just might come back and do more harm than just taking a package.

West Seattle Resident December 7, 2015 (11:36 am)

I noticed the webcam footage is from nest. Are these basic Nest cameras? Do you have the outdoor “pod” around one?

I’m pretty impressed! We use a D-Link version ourselves, but I’ve been intrigued by Nest – and I’m definitely impressed with the Night Vision quality.

MJ December 7, 2015 (3:10 pm)

I’ll just put a trap door in front expensive box. Then citizen arrest them and drag to the station on my own. Waste of time? Yes. Stooping to their level? Yes. But how fun would that be. Make a game of it

Uncle Loco December 7, 2015 (7:57 pm)

I doubt the people involved with this have anything to lose so I would expect some sort of retaliation for any traps. The dog poo boxes will just end up in your neighbor’s yard. It’s kind fun to think about though.

My front porch needs to be repainted soon, maybe I should do the old hanging paint bucket trick…

Sorry, comment time is over.