I haven’t scared the bejebus out of my mom in a while, so here’s a quick rundown on some prowling and crime reports that have come across my screen recently.
Over on Facebook, Michelle wrote:
Nic just caught a prowler in my neighbor’s garage on 1st ave NW […] Early to mid twenties, light brown wavy hair cut short on the sides and longer on top in “jersey douche” cut. Tanned, dark framed square eyeglasses, white T-shirt, black backpack and blue jeans. […]
It’s actually late for prowling. I’ve caught car thieves and neighbors have caught random rummagers but always in the wee hours.. When it’s still dark, duh! 7:30 Monday morning?! He tried to say he was “Jeff, black Acura across the street” (but it ain’t an Acura and it ain’t his) as he cut through into another neighbor’s backyard. So Nic went after him…
Take it to him, Nic! (And our apologies to all the jersey douches out there who may now feel unfairly targeted.) In the commentary that followed, there was advice given to report the incident to the police (Michelle says she did). Carl responded:
A couple of burglars had been hitting the buildings around north lake ave for a quite sometime, the police didn’t do much. but one day they broke in while my friend was working late, that changed the crime from burglary to robbery, and THEN the police actually took the time to revue security cam footage, found a license plate, and found the guys in about three weeks.
Which reminds me that I also need to be careful about the difference between “burglary” and “robbery” in my reporting, or risk the wrath of the junior Safires out there.
Elsewhere, R.E. writes:
Tues. at 8pm, a man wondered up to our porch, leered in through the open window and when I confronted him and escorted him briskly off the property he said he was looking for my daughter. […] He is 6′, curly brown/grey hair, reeks of B.O. and cigs. Hip length black wool coat, jeans white tennis shoes. Kind of gimpy. The most used up version of Jimmy Stewart you’ve ever seen.
He eyed me in a very lecherous way, more to diminish – but all the same, very used up, a lifeless human, but scary in how comfortable he was walking up to our house, up the stairs and over to the far end of the porch. The police arrived two hours later. The officer has seen him, and encouraged everyone to remind him to move it along. He also highly recommended calling it in and getting an incident number. It assists the police in removing him. Neighbors have seen him, he seems to come up from Stone Way and is on 40th, Wallingford, N.35th, etc… please be watchful, and have conversations with your kids. His intentions were not for stealing items… be alert!!!
A. replied:
Your description fits that of a man I’ve seen around 38th and Fremont a few times. He once scolded me for covering my sons stroller with a blanket. It was weird but also scary, the way he spoke to me. He was very domineering and verbally aggressive.
And Stacy added:
He sounds similar to a man who caused trouble in the Whirled Peas Fremont P-Patch (40th and Woodland Park) last summer. I sometimes see him with a woman with very short hair. Last summer, various members of the P-Patch called the police on him multiple times. I hadn’t seen him since the fall, but I recently saw him and the woman sitting in the alleyway between the P-Patch and the apartment building. Both the man and woman look like they have been on the street for a long time.
Keep your eye out for a used up Jimmy Stewart, and don’t hesitate to call in assistance if you feel there is a danger.
Finally, Jim over on Ashworth and 42nd writes:
I had a Vespa scooter stolen from in front of our house last night. A neighbor had a bike stolen this past weekend. The cars on our block all got tossed Sunday night if they were unlocked. The scooter theft is on file with SPD.
I am quite sure “Jimmy” lives in an RV or something on the road below the Burke Gilman in Wallingford. I see him regularly when I run in the mornings. Sometimes he is brushing his teeth or just waking up. He has been there for at least a year.
In reference to Anne’s suspicion that he is one of the ‘campers’ on the Trail: I don’t understand why that sort of ‘parking’ is allowed. Clearly it’s a public safety issue and should be cleaned up. Any insight?
I never posted this, but back in late February, our 2000 Honda Civic was stolen from our street on the corner of 46th and 1st Ave NE on a Friday morning. We filed a police report and an insurance claim, et al. The next afternoon, as we were getting ready to go pick up a rental car, we got a call from the police saying they found our car in Maple Leaf and asked if we could come meet the officers who found it. So by 3:00pm Saturday we had the car back, undamaged. The thief stole all of our re-usable shopping bags and left a soggy umbrella and a broken smart phone.
(Interestingly, the thief seems to have been doing some sort of serial car theft, because the reason they found our car was that they were responding to a stolen-car call from the same block. And apparently the officer who took our stolen car report recovered another stolen car within a block of our place. According to the police this was not an uncommon pattern – steal a car, drive to another neighborhood to search it where there is less risk of the owners showing up, steal another car, etc.)
So we figured that was the end of the story, and at the police officers advice we went out and bought a steering-wheel lock (“Club”).
But then about two weeks later, I got a voicemail from a detective at SPD saying they had a suspect in custody for the theft of our car, and did we want to file charges. To which, of course, we said “hell yes”, and no we did not give this person access to our car on the night of yada yada. The thief had actually confessed and driven officers around to show all the places where they had stolen the cars. We never had any follow-up, so presumably the suspect took some sort of plea-deal. The sad thing is that, according to the detective, the suspect was homeless and seems to have been using the cars for a dry place to sleep more than anything.
But it shows that, indeed, sometimes car thieves get caught!
Love your story Ragweed! I wanted to add a couple of very minor property crimes. Early in July, two people (Caucasian) carrying flashlights and wearing backpacks stole an entire bag of trash from our trash can around 2 am. Ten days later, a man and woman spent six minutes rummaging through our car, which was parked in our driveway. Since we had video, an SPD Officer took a police report in person and also lifted prints from the vehicle. If you have video of the event, don’t fill out an on-line police report. Those reports are just for statistics, they are not given case numbers and they will NOT be investigated. Instead, call the non-emergency line for SPD and talk to an Officer in person.
Last night our house was broken into. We had been gone for 2 weeks and got back yesterday. This morning I woke up and our bathroom window opened and a ladder was below. They climbed into our main floor bathroom and stole our wallets that were left in the kitchen. Can’t believe that happened. I Am just great up they didn’t venture upstairs or anywhere else in the house where me or my kids were.
Our “secure” gated condo garage @ 35th & Troll has been prowled about a couple times a year for the last 30 years. We’ve had a $400 GPS receiver stolen, bikes, etc. & I’m convinced most are teens seeking an adrenaline high/party as they’ve left empty beer & wine bottles in the back seat of our prowled cars, etc. They always fine a way into our garage, but rarely break into our condos (once in 30 years) where they can be legally shot; maybe if they could be shot anywhere on our property like in Texas (instead of just inside our homes) much of this crime would probably drop substantially. Lobby your State Rep. to modify the law.
Hey Mike – I’m much more worried about someone willing to shoot someone for trying to steal a bike than someone actually stealing a bike. You’re not really giving me a strong motive to lobby to loosen gun laws.
DB, if someone gets into your home or condo, you have no way of knowing what they’re after or what their intentions are. So are you actually saying if someone is in your home which, if you and your family are present, is a very real threat to your lives, you wouldn’t be willing to kill him? let me guess, you’d use some stern words instead?
hayduke – Sorry, even after moving the goal posts (Mike L was talking about wanting to legally shoot someone anywhere on the property, not just in the residence), I won’t take the old-as-Dukaksis bait of ‘what if someone is coming after you, bet you’d want a gun then, huh?’ Sorry to disappoint you, but stern words will most likely resolve most cases of meeting someone in your residence. Beyond that, non-lethal means (pepper spray, golf club, mean dog) would probably be nice. Given the statistics of how much likely you are to be a victim of a gun shot if you have a gun in your home, I’ll stick with taking my chances for the rest of the situations. My risk is far higher from an errant bullet from a crazy neighbor trying to ‘protect’ himself from the 17 year trying to steal a bike than the 17 year old violently confronting me. I’m just not the Yosemite-Sam-shoot-first-ask-question-later type of guy. Worked for the first 50 years so far.
My guess is that statistically speaking, summary executions of home intruders in Wallingford is exceedingly rare. If it has ever happened at all. As they say lately, “it isn’t a thing”, outside of the fevered imaginations of a few.