Seattle Times – Police allow car break-ins to become a Seattle growth industry

[transplantella]

Since this blog reports oodles of stolen car/break in stories every week, I thought you all might want to see this.

“What I learned last weekend: If your car gets broken into, there’s probably no point in calling the police because they won’t do anything.

This turns out to be true even if you direct police to the thieves’ van, with the perpetrators sitting in it holding your stolen stuff in plain view. The police will tell you to forget it, and call your insurance instead.”

Read the rest here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fseattletimes.com%2Fhtml%2Flocalnews%2F2024924914_westneat02xml.html

Share This

[kayo]

That is just nuts. Glad he reported on his experience. We’ve had one car stolen from right in front of our house (and later found destroyed). A smash and grab in broad daylight in a busy location (West Seattle YMCA). And had cars rifled through (at least a few times.). In only one out of probably 5-6 instances were cops involved beyond taking a report and in that one instance it was only because a watchful neighbor saw the thieves actively breaking into our car and called police (who responded right away – that one was over 15 years ago in the U District.). Frustrating that in all cases except one, the perps got away with it. The car thievery was especially frustrating. Because of our experiences, we never leave anything of value in our cars…EVER. I just assume that there are always thieves watching who could steal from us. Sad, but true. I guess they have no deterrent if the police won’t even intervene in such a clear cut case as described in the article. Frustrating.

Share This

[JoB]

even if you are going to call your insurance you still need to call the police or go online to file a report so you have the number for your insurance :(

Share This

[Sue]

The thing is, even though doesn’t seem right that it’s ignored and allowed to happen, I’ve also never lived in a place where so many smash & grabs happen, and it’s because people are foolish enough to leave the valuables there, so thieves know it’s routine. I am blown away every time I see a post here where someone says they put their purse under the seat, or they left some very valuable stuff in the back seat, and then are somehow shocked that it’s been stolen. In a perfect world, I should be able to leave valuables in my car and trust that it’ll still be there when I get back, but we know that’s not how the world works. But the more people that leave valuables, the more the thieves are going to make assumptions that they’re there, even if they don’t actually see it happen. Yes, I agree these crimes shouldn’t be dismissed by police. But we should all be doing our part to make sure there’s nothing for them to steal in the first place.

Share This

[TanDL]

I was appalled to read this incident in the Times this morning and would like to hear some accountability from the police department. People sometimes make mistakes and leave things in their car when they shouldn’t. BUT… theft, breaking and entering and smash/grabs are CRIMES and those crimes need to be solved. When citizens do most of the work for the police by tracking down the criminals and telling the police how to gain probable cause with evidence and still the police don’t want to get involved, there’s a problem! Please Seattle Police Department… enlighten us on why you can no longer do your jobs around this particular type of crime.

Share This

[WSB]

Extrapolating Danny W’s very unfortunate experience into a deduction that police “ignore” or “allow” these crimes is not accurate (for one thing, not a SOUL seems to have noted that it was Saturday night, during the windstorm, with 50,000 people out of power around the city and SPD involved in trying to block streets with downed wires, etc.) … for seven years now we’ve read reports, listened to scanner calls, published Crime Watch reports, read thousands of comments, and yup, they could do better. But they don’t “ignore” or “allow” them as a policy. Anyway, I just jumped in to share this new link as certainly this has gotten the Chief’s attention.

SPD to Review Response to Property Crime

Will be very interested to see what if anything comes out of it.

-TR

Share This

[Rags]

TR…don’t understand your post. I thought Danny’s article clearly stated that the police told him to call his insurance company and then wouldn’t intervene when he had the thiefs cornered in the parking lot and even taunted him when they knew he was there. I fail to see how the weather had anything to do what posters to his article confirmed was typical police response. I think as many posters pointed out is that our law enforcement is more focused on generating revenue than enforcing the law.

Share This

[TanDL]

I’m happy the new police chief has taken notice and will review the issue. Maybe we don’t have enough officers on the streets and we could push the City to re-prioritize their funding. I’ve been listening to talk radio as I’ve traveled in the car the past few days and all the local pundits were talking about this with interviews of numerous Seattle citizens who have gotten the same lack of response over property crimes. Maybe it’s a small number of folks compared to the overall population, but property crimes are becoming more common and I’d love for the police to be able to crack down a little on these crimes. It may be more difficult as our density grows, we get more of a transient population (micro-housing) and people have to park blocks away from their homes, but some effort or even an explanation that officers are completely tied up with dangerous weather conditions would be greatly appreciated.

Share This

[trickycoolj]

I think one take away was that the crooks have started baiting people using find my iPhone to sell back their stuff. If that doesn’t suggest a problem I don’t know what does. Luckily I see the new Chief is taking the matter seriously. Too bad things like this have to happen to reporters in the Times and Stranger before any action is taken.

Share This

[JoB]

and this morning…

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/11/king-co-deputies-arrest-three-in-car-prowl-identity-theft-ring/

Share This

[Huindekmi]

Car theft is a Class B felony.

Identity theft is either a Class B or Class C felony (depending upon what type of information was stolen and how it was used).

Car prowls, however, are a misdemeanor. The police will gather statistics on these incidents, but won’t put forth much effort to follow up on the case. Even if caught, the perpetrators probably won’t get more than a slap on the wrist.

So, if someone breaks into your car and steals a few things… yeah, the police won’t do a whole lot about it. They may even grumble about having to fill out the paperwork. At least they did the last time I called after my car was broken in to.

Share This

[JoB]

but when car prowlers break into your car and use what they find there to commit identity theft…

they definitely will do something about it.

Huindekmi

you are lucky someone actually came to your house to fill out paperwork after your car prowl..

they directed me to an online form :(

Share This

[sharktank]

In all honesty, with all the actual(serious) crime SPD deals with, fill out the online form and don’t waste an officers time.

Or heck, you could just take matters into your own hands and remove all valuables from your car.

Share This

[Author]

Posts