Hot on the heels of our neighbors at Latona and NE 42nd St discovering a burglar in their house at 7 pm, this was just posted to the Green Lake Mom’s list by a member who lives in the 50th and 2nd Ave NE area of Wallingford:
Wanted to give everyone a heads up that we were just burgled. A woman, about 40 with short dark hair, mixed race walked into our house at about 2:00pm today. My husband was home, upstairs checking on my toddler (my older son was next door). He came down and found her wandering around. He is really trusting so he asked her only a few questions. She said something about looking for her kids. He escorted her out of the house not realizing she had my laptop/mouse/cord in her bag and a jar of change.
The police said she’s well known in the neighborhood (begging the question, why is she still around?). She got into a truck and my husband took the licence plate. Turns out the truck was stolen from Wenatchee. Anyway, spread the word and lock the doors again for a while.
Be safe.
Strictly speaking 7pm is not broad daylight anymore. 🙂 Troubling all the same.
My wife Mardi posted earlier.
The woman had shoulder length dark tight curly hair, and got into a small red pick up truck (A74137T) with a white man. The woman was of mixed race, not heavy or thin, and a regular smoker.
That description sounds a lot like a woman who lives in the downstairs apartment of my house. I wish I had a picture. Any idea how long she’s been “known by the police” in this area? She and her boyfriend moved in about 6-7 months ago. They’ve both been to jail and both “work” despite getting unemployment checks.
I used to tell my partner he was paranoid about keeping the front & back doors locked even when we are at home. These days though, you just can’t be too careful. I know hindsight is 20/20, but if it had been me, I would not have let her walk out of the house carrying anything. But then, I guess she could have had a gun in her bag, and that would have been a worse outcome. I bet the husband is not so trusting any more. This kind of thing always makes you feel violated.
I’m making a point of saying hello to everyone I meet when I’m out around the neighborhood. I mean, I do anyway, but even more so now — I want to do my part to break the feeling that we all need to huddle behind locked doors in fear of the people around us.
…I mean, take sensible precautions, but do our part to make the neighborhood a coherent, welcoming place, where everyone keeps an eye open and Knows Their Neighbors.
Sorry that happened. I’ve been living in Wallingford since 93’ish. All in all, very safe. One burglary – back about 5 years ago – coincidentally all they took was my laptop and a jar of change.
Anyway, yeah, let’s keep an eye out for one another.
I’m sorry that happened to you folks. But, come on — this is the big city. We do really need to look out for each other, but we also need to keep our doors locked. I’ve lived in Wallingford since 1974, was burglarized twice in very short succession in 1987, and have never felt anything but safe out on the street in our neighborhood.
Wow, this is really disturbing. I live right in that area. I’m pretty good about keeping my doors locked but with all the break-ins I’ve been reading about here in the last few months I’m seriously considering investing in some kind of window bars.
Or (cringe) moving to the suburbs. 🙁
Oh stop. There’s not more crime, we are just more aware of it because of the internet. I have lived here since 1995. And although no break-ins. I know cars have always been broken into and stolen regularly in this area. I assume the same with homes, but without a neighborhood blog I didn’t know.
I agree with kerrizor. Know your neighbor. I love this place!
Why is it always ‘a laptop and a jar of change’? I’ve lived in Wallingford since October 2007 and my apartment was broken into last November, and you guessed it, they took a laptop and a jar of change! I was pretty startled by it all, it’s such an unnerving feeling knowing someone crept around your home while you were away. They actually climbed through a window that was kept secure with a piece of wood, and was blocked by my desk. (darn bugger had to be a skinny one to squeeze through, and move the desk) But to look on the bright side (if there is one), it’s a learning experience. If definitely makes you more aware of your actions in the opportunity to learn from these unfortunate incidents, but it sure doesn’t make you feel good.
It’s true, the more crime stories I hear, the more insecure I feel about our neighborhood. But all in all, it’s a pretty safe place to live. We just need to put our foot down and take our neighborhood back!!
We moved to Wallingford about 15 years ago.
About 2months after moving in we came home from a weekend trip to find our front door ajar and the back door kicked in. We looked around and for quite a while we could not find anything missing. Then finally we realized all our CDs were gone.
We could not help laughing thinking of the criminals back at their hideout looking through our collection and asking “what is this crap?”
Replacing the door cost a lot more than the CDs.
About 6 months later someone broke the window to a side door but did not get past the deadbolt.
For the last 14 years we have been lucky.
In re: Janey’s 12/20 message, absolutely agree. There’s nothing shameful re:
always keeping outside doors locked when at home. Heavens, people, all it
takes is one paranoid psychotic walking in on you because the door was unlocked.
I too have lived in the neighborhood since the mid-70’s. Also was burgled, once,
in 1987 – ran a short errand to the former Ernst Hardware, to discover upon my
return that my back door had been kicked in. A computer and – get this – a
typewriter were stolen. In any event, a steel door replaces that back door now,
and it is always locked.
I hope you contacted all the local publishing houses to put them on alert for the submission of a typewritten manuscript, “My Life as a Burglar”.