Think it’s less likely that you’ll be targeted by a car prowler if the weather is miserable? Think again. Three of the four most-recent West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports we’ve received are about car prowls on the first day of this rainy week. First, from Admiral:

My car was broken into (Monday morning) between midnight and 8am at 42nd Ave SW and Spokane. They took the entire center column that included an old Alpine stereo and the heating controls. They also took 2 iPods. According to the SPD it was a clean, professional job. They didn’t break any windows or damage the doors to get into the vehicle. Just want to left my neighbors in this area to be aware and avoid leaving valuables in their cars.

Next, two more car break-ins, both in Seaview, plus another case of mailbox tampering:Read More

(UPDATED 5:11 PM with new information following bail hearing – see end of story)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A repeat offender who gained regional infamy in 2009 for prolific West Seattle graffiti vandalism involving an anti-gay slur is back in jail right now, under investigation for an alleged hate crime.

While WSB policy is generally to not identify suspects until they are charged, the circumstances of this case and the history of the suspect have led us to make an exception. The suspect is 34-year-old Ryan J. Cox, arrested on Saturday and accused of hitting a man with a baseball bat on Friday as he and the victim were leaving a Metro bus in the Luna Park area. The man told police that he believed he was attacked because of his sexual orientation, and that Cox had been hurling insults at him on board the bus.

Though police could not find a suspect after the attack – in which the victim said he was hit four times, leaving raised welts on his back – they encountered Cox on Saturday at the Solstice Park tennis courts across from north Lincoln Park, an area he has been known to frequent, and the encounter led to the arrest. That part of the story was first told to WSB by a reader who asked for anonymity. He wrote on Saturday:

Read More

Six notes in today’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup …

BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: Last month, a new campaign to use billboards to spotlight unsolved murder cases was announced. We covered the event, and spoke there with Dwight K. Guy, widower of Greggette Guy, whose March murder along Beach Drive has gone unsolved for seven months. Organizers told us one of the billboards would highlight two West Seattle unsolved murders; we hadn’t photographed it yet but took that picture today along Harbor Avenue, across from ActivSpace, where it’s up with photos of Mrs. Guy and of Kaari Higgins, whose January 2011 death in Fauntlee Hills was classified as a homicide months later. No breaks reported yet in either case – call 911 if you know anything, or send an anonymous online tip.

STOLEN CAR: From Angela:

My 2004 Cadillac Escalade was stolen sometime between midnight and 7am this morning. I live at 47th Ave SW and Alaska street. Plate number AHR8062.

POSSIBLY STOLEN BICYCLE, FOUND: From Chris:

Early (Wednesday) morning I found a mountain bike in the alley at California and Graham. It was partially disassembled and its location seemed pretty suspicious. In the event that it was stolen, it is going to be turned over to the Seattle Police. It is a 14″ blue Jamis Ranger SX. If you happen to hear of a stolen bicycle with this description from other readers, please refer them to SPD.

HIT-AND-RUN – SEE ANYTHING? From Julie:

My car was sideswiped (Tuesday October 23, 2012) while parked in front of the West Seattle Christian Church on 42nd Ave SW between SW Oregon and SW Genesee. If you have any information on who could have hit it, please contact me at jconyne@hotmail.com. My car is a 2008 Charcoal Grey 4 door Jetta.

CAR BREAK-INS: From Steven:

This morning, around 3:15 am, my neighbors truck was broken into. The driver-side window was broken, but the alarm scared the bad people away. We live in the 6700 block of 39th Ave. SW.

Also, from Hilari:

Someone rifled through our car on 14th and Kenyon Monday night. Nothing was in there but some change in the ash tray, which was taken. They just left a mess of papers from our glove compartment.

Be sure to report such crimes even if nothing major was taken – you can even do it online.

Tonight’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup starts with another stolen car getting found – Carissa reported her Audi was stolen in early October; she e-mailed again to say it was found last Thursday night at Sea-Tac Airport. One odd detail from Carissa: “There were tools in the back with paperwork for Queen City Sheet Metal Company.” (Just to see what’s trending now, we checked the police-report map for the most recently reported car thefts in West Seattle: A truck was stolen late last night from the 3400 block of 40th SW; a car was stolen early yesterday from the 5200 block of 19th SW; and one was taken late Sunday night from the 6700 block of 12th SW. That’s the entirety of the detail available – which is why we welcome reader reports with more info.)

Ahead, six more reader reports – including a neighborhood where burglars seem to strike on a certain day of the week:Read More

Six reader reports to share in this West Seattle Crime Watch roundup. First, the photo at left goes with this report from David, who originally posted this in the WSB Forums:

(Saturday) we parked in the free parking behind Jak’s and had brunch, then went to the computer store on California – we were parked from about 11 AM – 1 PM. When we came back to the car, the front passenger window had been smashed, and a black Kipling backpack with a smartphone and Nikon digital camera that was on the floor on the passenger side was gone. We have lived here for 6 years and park there all the time – never thought we’d have to worry mid-day, with cars and people all around. Sure would be nice to hear if anyone saw anything or finds the backpack.

Five more reader reports ahead: Read More

We have a few more West Seattle Crime Watch items to share later tonight but here’s a quick bit of good news for starters. You might remember the reader report earlier this week from Rebecca, whose car was stolen just days after she moved to West Seattle. It’s been found:

The car was found today 5 miles from the house, in Burien! Absolutely no damage, only some CD’s taken. They didn’t take the iPhone charger (?).

That isn’t as puzzling as it might seem – most cars are taken, SPD says, as “temporary transportation for common criminals.”

Lousy way to get welcomed to a new neighborhood. Brand-new West Seattleite Rebecca hopes you’ll be on the lookout for her car:

My husband and I moved to West Seattle two days ago and our car was stolen last night from in front of our house in Highland Park! It is a green, 4-door Honda CRV, license plate 780-WYL. The year is 2000.

Just a week and a half ago, two vehicles reported here as stolen were found, so here’s hoping the same for Rebecca.

3:25 PM ORIGINAL REPORT: Three break-ins to report in West Seattle Crime Watch – first, one announced in a news release just received from The Nature Consortium:

Late Thursday night, thieves broke into the boiler room at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and attempted to steal data servers belonging to Nature Consortium and Southwest Interagency Academy. Nature Consortium employees discovered the break-in when servers were not operational on Friday morning.

This is the fifth break-in at the Youngstown building this year, and tenants have urged the need for increased security. The historic school building is owned by the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, which has significantly reduced staff support for the building in recent years due to budget problems.

The thieves entered the boiler room though a manhole in the sewer, removed several data servers from the room and abandoned them nearby. Two of the units were discovered the next morning in the Delridge Park across the street. Both Nature Consortium and the Interagency Academy were able to recover their servers and no data was lost.

“We’re really fortunate that we were able to recover everything,” says Development Coordinator Lindsay von Marbod, who discovered the break-in Friday morning. “We could have lost all of our files, not to mention the dollar value of those servers. We’re really lucky.”

Two other reader reports about burglaries, ahead (PLUS, ADDED 4 PM, 2 OTHER NEW CRIME WATCH REPORTS):Read More

EARLY MORNING SHOOTING TODAY: SPD Blotter has details this afternoon on a call early this morning that closed fairly quickly (which is why we didn’t have it at the time) but, police now report, did send a man to the hospital with a bullet wound to his leg:

On October 14th at approximately 2:46 a.m. officers responded to a shooting in an apartment complex in the 3200 block of SW Avalon Way.

Preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect and victim are acquaintances. Both adult males were intoxicated and involved in some sort of dispute with a third male at the entrance to the apartment building. The third male punched the victim and the victim’s friend (the suspect) went inside to his apartment. When the victim went to the suspect’s apartment to confront him, the suspect retrieved a pistol from the bedroom and shot the victim in the leg. The victim retreated outside the apartment calling for help and an unrelated witness called 911.

Officers knocked on the suspect’s door and announced their presence. The suspect surrendered without incident. Officers recovered the handgun used in the shooting, along with one spent shell casing and bullet fragments lodged in the carpet.The 26-year-old male suspect was booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Assault. The 25-year-old male victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center for treatment of a non-life-threatening bullet wound to the lower leg.

UPDATE ON LAST WEEKEND’S SHOOTING: No charges filed yet in connection with the October 6th shooting outside a home in Westwood (WSB coverage here). Bail for the suspect was set at $100,000 last Monday (as reported here); he posted bond and got out of jail on Tuesday, and as of our last check, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said the case had not yet been referred to them. (P.S. Another reminder – a top-level staffer from the KCPAO is the guest at Tuesday’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm at the SW Precinct – bring questions!)

SPD Blotter has details this afternoon on an early-morning incident near 27th and Cambridge (map) – shots fired into an apartment. Six people were inside, police say, but no one was hurt; SPD says 18 casings were found outside. This is just a few blocks east of the 30th SW Saturday morning shooting that injured one man, with the suspect jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail; there’s no indication at this point of any link.

(Saturday morning photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Followup today on the early-Saturday-morning shooting in Westwood: Bail was set this afternoon at $100,000 for the 23-year-old man arrested less than an hour and a half later, as reported here shortly after it happened. He is facing a first-degree assault charge for shooting another man in the chest. The court documents for today’s bail hearing have the same details as the police report that came out later Saturday – the victim was walking in the 9200 block of 30th SW around quarter past two Saturday morning and got into an argument with the suspect, followed by a physical fight, which then was followed by the suspect grabbing a gun from the holster worn by a friend, and firing one shot into the victim’s chest, before taking off in a vehicle now described as “a silver SUV.” Witnesses gave police the suspect’s name, and officers arrested him at his parents’ home on Queen Anne. He’s due back in court Wednesday. We don’t know the victim’s name, so we have no way to even try to get a condition update, but police reported on Saturday that he had been “stabilized” at the hospital. The suspect does not appear to have a felony criminal record.

In West Seattle Crime Watch tonight – one new car-theft report, and word that a stolen truck and stolen motorcycle reported here recently have both been recovered. First, the stolen car – it’s the one in the photo above, and the one in this tweet from the Seattle Police Department‘s @getyourcarback feed:

What that doesn’t say is that the 2009 gray Audi Q7, bought just three months ago by someone who moved to West Seattle just three months before that, was stolen from Highland Park, 5th and Cloverdale. Call police if you see it.

Meantime, the last two stolen vehicles reported in Crime Watch coverage have both been recovered. One week ago tonight, we published Sean‘s report about his stolen truck; he says it was found “in a public parking lot off 42nd.” And Ryan‘s motorcycle, mentioned here on Thursday, has turned up too: He says, “It was reported by a neighbor a few blocks from where I am who reads the WSB; the police came, checked it out, asked around, and then called me; the guy who stole it just left it there.”

Two theft reports in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon. First, Ryan‘s motorcycle was taken:

Stolen near 16th and Henderson SW: Honda CBR 600 F3 1995 Sportsbike

IT IS VERY NOTICEABLE, it’s a Purple, Black, Neon Yellow, with a “yellow windshield” and a Custom Exhaust, last known location was going East on Henderson street sw, it was taken by a white guy about 6 feet, wearing blue jeans, white sweatshirt and a black backpack, in his early 30s. This happened yesterday around 3 pm. LP is 9B6727

Andrew‘s bicycle was stolen from the 2400 block of 54th Place SW:

I found my bike stolen from my apartment complex this morning. It was locked up in the complex’s bike rack in the back parking lot. The bike lock was cut and left behind.

The bike is a Kona Ute, brown in color, with large orange bags. It’s the extended cargo-bike frame. The grips have been replaced with rubber grips that look like cork. There is a bottle holder on the handlebars along with a Kona bell. The kickstand is missing both it’s rubber feet and there’s some chain wear on the right kickstand leg. It has Continental CityContact tires, front disc brakes, and a wood deck on the cargo area. Unfortunately I never wrote down the serial number from it, but it’s pretty distinctive and wasn’t produced in large numbers.

If you see either one, call 911.

Side note: This month’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting will be Tuesday, October 16th, 7 pm, at Southwest Precinct, and president Richard Miller says they’ll have a guest from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.