Two overnight incidents:

12:01 AM: Police are searching in The Junction right now after a reported street robbery in the 4800 block of California SW. According to emergency-radio traffic, the victim reported being held up at gunpoint by two men who took his phone and fled. Only partial descriptions have been mentioned over the air – one black, one Hispanic, both in their early 20s, one with a red bandana over his face. We’ll add anything more we find out.

1:17 AM: Another police search, this time in Highland Park – a neighbor reported seeing burglars inside a house in the 8800 block of 10th SW. Police have just finished searching the house; the reported intruders are gone, and now they have to figure out if anything was taken.

Something to say about crime concerns and Seattle Police‘s work in your neighborhood?

Starting one week from tonight, a Seattle University research assistant who has been working for months with Southwest Precinct police is holding community meetings to hear from you.

Jennifer Burbridge has set a schedule of focus-group-style meetings in which she is extending an open invitation for community members to show up and talk about crime and police issues, particularly (but not exclusively) as they relate to the “micro-community policing plans” announced earlier this year. She explains:

The structure of the focus groups is that I will pose a series of questions about crime concerns, the micro-community policing plans in each area, how the community feels the police are addressing their concerns, and how the community feels the police can improve in their efforts. So I am looking for both specific concerns as well as generalities about how the community is feeling about the micro-community policing plans.

Burbridge says the community members who participate will not be identified by name. Here’s the schedule – ALL meetings will be in the community room at the Southwest Precinct:

-Wednesday, July 22nd: ALKI COMMUNITY, 6-7 pm

-Thursday, July 23rd: ADMIRAL COMMUNITY, 6:30-7:30 pm

-Tuesday, July 28th: WS BLOCK WATCH CAPTAINS NETWORK, 6:30-7:30 pm

-Thursday, July 30th: WESTWOOD/ROXHILL/ARBOR HEIGHTS COMMUNITIES, 6:30-7:30 pm

-Wednesday, August 5th: PIGEON POINT COMMUNITY, 6:30-7:30 pm

-Thursday, August 6th: HIGH POINT/ALASKA JUNCTION COMMUNITIES, 6-7 pm

-Tuesday, August 11th: MORGAN JUNCTION, 7-8 pm

-Wednesday, August 12th: DELRIDGE COMMUNITY, 6-7 pm

The precinct is at Delridge/Webster; the community meeting room is right off the parking lot, which in turn is off Webster.

P.S. If you aren’t familiar with the micro-community policing plans – six are linked here. But again, that familiarity is not a prerequisite – if you have something to say about crime/policing, your participation is a plus. Burbridge already has been immersed in this work for months – we’ve seen her at many community meetings – and this is the next step.

If you noticed the police presence in North Delridge this afternoon – here’s what happened, according to WSB’s Christopher Boffoli, who went to the scene, and according to police we talked with at West Seattle Summer Fest:

(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
What was first reported as a strong-arm robbery, but was later determined to have been a theft, happened just after 1:30 pm on a Route 120 bus en route to Westwood Village. Metro Transit Police weren’t available in the area so Seattle Police responded; the bus was stopped on southbound Delridge at Andover. Three suspects were reported to have gotten off the bus; a woman reported her bag and wallet were taken. Christopher says, “They had a good description. A patrol officer had coincidentally seen people matching the description on Adams at 26th Ave SW so units converged on that location and detained the suspects. One was determined not to have committed a crime and two others, a man and a woman, were taken into custody. The victim was transported by SPD to the station for identification.”

A K-9 team helped search. The victim’s bag was recovered but her wallet is still missing – if you happen to find one in the area, let police know.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes:

BURGLARY FOLLOWUP: When we included a 36th/Trenton burglary arrest in West Seattle Crime Watch yesterday, based on neighborhood e-mails, this detail was missing – the “loose change” loot, just reported via SPD Blotter:

Police are hoping a burglar changes his ways after officers caught him walking out of a West Seattle home early Wednesday carrying 65 pounds of stolen coins.

A resident in the 8600 (block of) 35th Ave SW called 911 around 4 AM after hearing glass breaking and seeing a man climb into a neighbor’s window.

As Officers Joel Nark and Jason Ross arrived at the scene, they saw the burglar emerging from the home, carrying an armload of bags. When officers shouted for the suspect to stop, he dropped everything he was carrying and took off running down an alley.

Police chased after the man, who hopped several fences, ran through yards, and jumped off a 10-foot-high deck as he fled. Neighbors spotted the suspect running from police and pointed officers in his direction. Police eventually found the suspect hiding in a shed and took him into custody.

Police recovered the 65 pounds of change – which the homeowner reportedly saves to give to his son – and a stolen humidor, and booked the suspect into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.

P-PATCH CAR PROWL: From Dan:

My 9-months-pregnant wife pulled up to the Lincoln Park P-Patch (Wednesday) to water our garden. A blue, 2 door, lowered Acura/Honda with gold rims and an exhaust system pulled up when she left and punched out her window and stole her purse containing all of her ID’s and her medical cards. Folks across the street caught the license plate as (ending in) –9YFK. Please, if you see this car, give the police a call.

Two more West Seattle Crime Watch reports:

CHILD THREATENED, CHASED: This incident was reported to police on Sunday, but we didn’t hear about it until two people asked us about it, having seen a secondhand mention via social media/e-mail. While the incident was described as an “abduction attempt,” we couldn’t find anything in police files with that classification; finally it turned up classified as a “threats” case, which led to the incident number, enabling us to get this information from the Southwest Precinct:

The report taken by officers say an 11-year-old boy was approached around 5:30 pm Sunday by a man near 45th and Walker, by under-renovation Fire Station 29. The man was making threatening- and insulting-type remarks to the boy, police say, so the boy started to run toward his not-too-far-away home. The man pursued him until the boy was a block away from home, according to police, and then finally stopped. The police report says the man made a motion at one point as if to try to grab the boy, but no physical contact was made. Police were unable to find the man, who they told us was described only as “dirty and grubby, transient-type” looking, no further details; the social-media post forwarded to us said “early 20s, dark hair.”

‘HIT-AND-RUN JOKER’: From Keith:

Last last night my 1993 Chevrolet truck was hit. We live on the 35th arterial north of Fauntleroy and heard a huge screeching of tires locked. Guessing it was a 60 foot skid by the duration and mild skid marks on the road. Then a huge bang. My wife was looking out there ahead of me, and shouted out “oh my gosh, they hit the truck”. I ran outside with her and a dark-colored sedan was backing away from the side of the truck, then took off at top speed up SW Manning St, then north on 37th Ave SW.

We called the police, had witnesses all over the neighborhood coming over to the house to help the SW precinct assemble details. Eventually about 3 or 4 police units had been looking thru the neighborhood for the car. Thankfully the damage appears minimal, at least a hubcap, possibly the hub/axle/wheel/tire needing inspection. Incident number is 2015-223600, officer #6040 – if you have anything to report, or noticed a ’90s Subaru sedan with new left front damage. They really would like to track down this hit-and-run joker.

New local crime-trend info today from the latest semi-weekly SeaStat briefing at HQ – all in this slide deck just published via the SPD website. SeaStat does not spotlight all precincts at every briefing, but this time our area was featured on three slides:

MAJOR CRIME CATEGORIES: First slide from the Southwest Precinct (West Seattle and South Park) showed the year-to-date changes in all major-crime categories. (The screengrab is too small/blurry to read in our format, so we’re summarizing, but again, you can see it firsthand here.) First, the increases:

*Aggravated assault, non-domestic-violence: Up 21 percent, 51 incidents YTD compared to 42 a year earlier
*Burglary, non-residential: Up 15 percent, 70 incidents YTD compared to 61 a year earlier
*Robbery: Up 12 percent, 64 incidents YTD compared to 57 a year earlier
*Motor-vehicle theft: Up 7 percent, 245 incidents YTD compared to 230 a year earlier
*Residential burglary: Up 5 percent, 228 incidents YTD compared to 217 a year earlier
*Car prowls: Up 4 percent, 438 incidents YTD compared to 420 a year earlier
*Larceny/theft: Up 4 percent, 479 incidents YTD compared to 459 a year earlier

One other category with an increase is homicide – 1 this year, 0 last year. (This year’s case was in South Park; West Seattle’s last homicide was in December 2013.)

Next, the decreases:

*Aggravated assault, domestic violence: Down 34 percent, 33 incidents YTD, 50 a year earlier
*Rape: Down 13 percent, 7 incidents YTD, 8 a year earlier

POSSIBLE HIGHLAND PARK BURGLARY PATTERN: This also was featured in the SeaStat deck – 8 break-ins between mid-May and mid-June:

You can take a closer look at those incidents via the SPD Police Report map – use the controls at left to choose the same time period, starting May 19th, and to select only burglaries; then click on any location to get the vicinity and date/time, plus report narrative if available.

NORTH ADMIRAL CAR PROWLS, PRE-ARREST: This slide illustrated a point police often make – repeat offenders are often responsible for a sizable number of incidents. This series preceded the June 12th arrest covered here and here – the case of the construction workers who tackled a juvenile car-prowl suspect (with one getting bitten for his trouble):

Since the suspect is a juvenile, information on his current status is not easy to come by, but we’re doing our best to find out.

CRIME-PREVENTION ADVICE: Also today – helpful information from SW/South Precincts Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon – the topics are window safety and graffiti vandalism: