Police Blotter 5/18/11

There has been a fair number of crimes committed in the neighborhood during the past month, as evidenced by the Seattle Police's crime map above. Although the map shows criminal activities reported since our last Police Blotter posting on April 14, the most shocking crime that took place during the period was inexplicably not shown on the map. So we manually put a big red "X' there to mark the spot at the E. Prospect Street road end where the armed robbery occurred on April 29.  We reported on that incident earlier this month.

At that same road end there was a drug bust two weeks later, on May 11.  In that incident, neighbors called police in the early evening to report that juveniles were smoking marijuana in the area just north of the Seattle Tennis Club.  The police report states that on arrival at the scene the officers smelled pot in the air, recovered the drugs from the juveniles, and took down names.  No one was arrested since there were fewer than 40 grams of weed confiscated and, according to police spokesperson Mark Jamieson, the policy is not to arrest unless 40 grams or more is involved. Which is not to say that the perpetrators' drug use will not have consequences. The police report notes the case has been "referred to City Attorney" for follow up.

There were three burglaries reported.  Two of these were in Broadmoor, one on May 9 on the 1700 block of Parkside Drive E, and one on May 11 on the 1400 block of Shenandoah Drive E.  In the first incident a homeowner reported having left a door unlocked when leaving the house, returning to discover that a laptop had been stolen. In the second incident, which happened in the early afternoon, the security guard at the gate reported to police that he had observed two juvenile males exiting Broadmoor carrying a laptop and what appeared to be an Xbox-type console.  He said he went over to talk to the suspects, who immediately dropped what they were carrying and took off.  The investigating police officers were able to locate the residence from which the objects had been stolen, noting that while there was no one home at the house, it appeared that there had been a forced entry through a door that had a broken window pane which had been patched with some cardboard.  There may have been other break-ins in Broadmoor which did not get reported or, if so, did not make it onto the crime map.  A couple weeks ago we received an email exchange between Broadmoor residents warning of numerous burglaries in the past month ("over 100 during the day in the last month in our area") and urging neighbors to lock their doors and keep a look out.

The third neighborhood burglary occurred on April 15 on the 600 block of 33rd Avenue E.  At about 1:30 pm on that Saturday a concerned citizen reported that he had observed the backdoor standing open to a house whose owners had left town the day before.  Police investigated and discovered that there had been a forced entry and that the place had been ransacked.  A second-floor window of the master bedroom had apparently been the point of entry.

There were two cars stolen, one from the 2300 block of Broadmoor Drive E. on May 14, and one from the 1800 block of 41st Avenue E. on May 8.  Car prowls occurred on the 4100 block of E. McGilvra St. on April 19, on the 3900 block of E. Lee Street on April 21, and from the 2300 block of 41st Avenue E. on April 29.

Finally, there were a couple of disturbances reported to police.  One of these occurred at 3:30 in the morning during the night of April 24. Neighbors on the 2200 block of 38th Place E. reported hearing loud unidentified noises.  The police officer initially dispatched to the scene reported that he was hearing what sounded like gunshots.  Additional patrol cars soon arrived and officers tried to locate the source.  It soon became apparent that the noise was not gunshots but was occurring at regular intervals and appeared to be coming from the roof of a residence.  A fire department ladder truck soon arrived and the firefighters discovered that a gas-line release valve, which was protruding through the roof of the house, was making the noise.  The gas company was summoned, the gas to the house was turned off, and a notice was placed on the door notifying the homeowners to contact the gas company upon their return.

[Key to crime-map symbols: starbursts represent burglaries, solid cars represent car thefts, un-solid cars represent car prowls, spray-paint cans represent property damage, upraised hands represent shoplifting, dollar bills represent thefts, handcuffs represent arrests under warrants, guns represent weapons involved, red exclamation points represent cases of harassment, narcotics needles represent drug busts, black masks represent disturbances, and gray cars represent traffic incidents.]