West Seattle Crime Watch: This time, no news is good news

Just last night, we got a very thoughtful note from a WSB’er concerned that the prolific crime reports of late were leaving people feeling as if West Seattle is a hotbed of evil. handcuffs_2.jpgOur philosophy is that we believe it’s important to give you the facts – sometimes the facts are that crime is up, sometimes that it’s down, but we believe that “knowledge is power” in tough times as well as good times. Seattle Police online stats only go back through December 2007, so we can’t give you the big picture for this month, or last month, or even January. But know that everything runs in cycles and the best way to keep those cycles down is to stay alert, as we’ve discussed lately. All that said — GOOD NEWS – we just reviewed Southwest Precinct reports from Tuesday through late last night, and there’s barely a burglary in the bunch. Could mean the recent arrests got the major culprits off the street — could be a coincidence — but whatever the case, we wanted to let you know. Here’s what else we found, including an arrest that solved some house/car window shootings:

HOUSE-CAR WINDOW SHOOTINGS SOLVED WITH ARREST NEAR SCHOOL: This began Thursday morning with a call from West Seattle High School, reporting several boys across the street, at Walnut and Stevens, playing with a gun. Police caught up with the suspects and discovered they had a pellet gun that had been fired several times, at the school and even at one suspect’s leg (he wasn’t hurt). In the process of this investigation, as they interviewed five suspects in all — boys aged 14 through 17 — police say one of the 14-year-olds confessed to having shot at house and car windows on Thursday night (both incidents had been reported separately, one in the 9200 block of 9th SW, one in the 6300 block of 29th SW). No motive was given, but the police report notes the suspect was in a car with self-proclaimed gang members at the time.

CAR BREAK-IN: Sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, the window of a car parked in the 3000 block of Charlestown was broken, and items were stolen, including a laptop, stereo, and GPS.

ANOTHER GAS DRIVEAWAY: Around 2 pm Tuesday, a light-green Mercedes drove off without paying for $85 in gas at the Fauntleroy/Alaska Shell.

BIKE THEFTS: Two bikes were reported stolen in separate incidents outside High Point Library in the past eight days.

THE ONLY BURGLARY REPORT WE SAW: Between 9 am Wednesday and 8:30 am Thursday, someone stole an outboard motor from the garage attached to a house in the 9800 block of 51st. The police report says the owner acknowledged the door is often left open for easier access.

As we always remind you – don’t hesitate to call police when you see or hear something suspicious, and of course when you believe a crime has been (or is being) committed. In addition to 911, there’s a non-emergency line at 206/625-5011. A big collection of Seattle Police crime-prevention resources is linked from the Southwest Precinct’s Crime Prevention page. Previous WSB police-report coverage is archived on our Crime Watch page.

11 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: This time, no news is good news"

  • angelescrest March 21, 2008 (7:43 pm)

    Thank you, WSB, for keeping us informed. What a wonderful community service.

  • ToddinWestwood/S.Delridge March 21, 2008 (8:07 pm)

    angelescrest- I love your login name. That was, by far, my favorite motorcycling road in Southern California. We used to eat lunch in Wrightwood all the time.

  • angelescrest March 21, 2008 (8:17 pm)

    thanks!

  • Max March 21, 2008 (9:22 pm)

    Right now, 7 out of 19 posts on the front page of WSB are crime-related. It could definitely be that there is a bit of a slant in that direction. Maybe a weekly crime report (in the absence of urgent news) would suffice.

  • JT March 21, 2008 (9:53 pm)

    I like the up to date info. It keeps us proactive and aware of patterns and signs in our own neighborhoods. It seems more than one case has been resolved by alert readers. It also brings us together to help when needed, as in the case of the arson.

  • WSB March 21, 2008 (10:44 pm)

    As always, we appreciate hearing what everyone’s thinking. The front-page analysis is a little unrepresentative at the moment because this has been a week with some major stories – the missing girl (not really a crime, but police were involved), arrests in the burglary sprees, and now a major arson. For a big-picture analysis of our content, check the “categories” list on the right sidebar, where the “development” and “transportation” categories each has more entries than “crime,” and “arts/culture” has almost that many – we pride ourselves on being pretty well-rounded. We also have split some former home-page content off into the forum area so that WSB’ers can initiate and participate in discussions more quickly (most notably, Reader Recommendations). As for a weekly crime update – the local weekly paper already has one of those – our whole mission is to be a real-time (or as close as possible) WS news source. Uh oh, I hear a siren … time to fire up the scanner again …

  • miws March 22, 2008 (2:34 am)

    Once again, visitors to this blog can choose to read what they wish. The heading “West Seattle Crime Watch” and the pic of the cuffs always indicates to me that it is the latest criminal activity update.

    .

    I wish the crime didn’t exist, and the world was just overflowing with warm and fuzzy bunnies and pretty flowers. Then WSB would have several article headings entitled “Warm and Fuzzy Bunnies, and Pretty Flowers”, that would be chock full of info such as “There are warm and fuzzy bunnies and pretty flowers everywhere!”

    .

    Sadly, the world, with all the good things that are actually out there, has it’s dark side. Add me to the list of those that appreciate the updates, so that I may be aware of the activity, and take appropriate action to keep myself and my neighbors, and even cow-orkers safe since I work in neighboring White Center, and to pass the info along where needed.

    .

    Mike

  • Mike Dady March 22, 2008 (7:34 am)

    I am in with the miws camp. Don’t read the West Seattle Crime Watch reports if you find them to disturbing or troubling. It is that simple. However, as has been aptly reported by the WSB’s tireless gleaning of stories from the SPD SW Precinct logs there does not seem to be a single WS neighborhood that is exempt from crime. From Admiral to Highland Park; Gatewood to Delridge; Alki to Pigeon Point; Westwood to Lincoln Park….all of WS is affected by various crime problems ranging from burglary, graffiti, arson, car prowl, rock throwing kids, shootings or dog attacks. I believe that the more informed the citizenry is, the better we will be able to help each other out and work towards finding solutions and reducing the problems.

  • Paul March 22, 2008 (1:22 pm)

    I read the crime reports as often as they are posted, and when I hear something that is in one of the areas I either live, or work, I spread the word as fast as I can to my neighbors. And then when they want to know how I learn this information so fast my response is always, “well the blog of course, don’t you check it every day”.

  • JoB March 23, 2008 (7:51 pm)

    if we don’t know what is happening.. we don’t know what to watch out for…

    i, for one.. took steps to protect our pickup after reading about the strange undercarriage thefts…

    and i let the dogs answer the door to solicitors now.

    if it’s local kids.. i can always put them in the bedroom and come back before i unlock the glass door:)

  • meg March 23, 2008 (9:47 pm)

    I think it is great… I think it almost forms one giant “blockwatch”…

Sorry, comment time is over.