Thursday, November 24, 2011

Police Blotter 11/15/11


House break in leads to arrests

We're certainly not complaining about our neighborhood's lack of notoriety, but since the Seattle Police Department began its own blog last year, we've noticed only two postings concerning crimes occurring in Madison Park.  The first such story was the one last week reporting the early-morning arson fire at the Bank of America ATM.  This week, coincidentally, there was another Madison Park crime story on the blog, this one with a much happier outcome:

Occupied Burglary in Madison Park, Suspect Apprehended
Posted by Detective Jeff Kappel

On November 23rd at approximately 3:00 a.m. officers responded to a report of an occupied burglary in progress in the 3400 block of East Valley Street.  Upon the officers’ arrival one suspect was still on scene and was taken into custody.  The victims told officers they saw another suspect in the back of the house.  Officers were unable to locate the second suspect and subsequently called a canine unit to the scene.  The victim’s residence was searched using the dog and no other suspects were located.  Officers then conducted an area search utilizing the dog. However, the second suspect remains at large.  

Preliminary investigation indicates that the suspects entered the house through an unlocked, but closed, front door.  The female homeowner found the first suspect seated on a chair in the living room.  She yelled at him and tried to get him to leave, but he was not immediately responsive.  The other family members were upstairs and came down to see what was going on.  Fortunately, there was no violence inside the home, and it does not appear that the suspect had time to take anything. 

The suspect appeared to be very intoxicated, under the influence of narcotics, or both.  It is unknown why he chose to enter this particular home. 

The 31-year-old male suspect was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary. 

[We understand from neighborhood sources that the second suspect was later apprehended. A word to the wise: It appears that the perpetrators entered the house using a hide-a-key.]


Stealing with a smile

The map above shows crimes that occurred in the neighborhood during the month since our last Police Blotter on October 15.  Unusually, there were few car prowls during the period (one on the 200 block of E. Galer on 11/10 and one on the 3800 block of E. Garfield on 11/13) and only one vehicle theft (a truck stolen from the 1500 block of 38th Avenue E. on 11/5).  There were, however, a lot of thefts reported during the month, running the gamut from stolen dirt to high-end watches.

Detective Kappel (the writer of the SPD blog posting) playfully suggested the headline we've used above, which aptly sums up one of the heists that was reported this month.  It seems that on October 17, a resident of the 1800 block of McGilvra Boulevard E. looked out her window and saw a man in the act of lifting several of her bags of potting soil into his truck.  Seeing the homeowner watching him, he smiled at her before jumping into the vehicle and driving off "at high rate of speed."

Five days later there was another theft in the neighborhood, one which had a greater economic downside.  On October 27, a homeowner on the 2300 block of 43rd Avenue E. reported that her $15,000 gold, silver, and aluminum watch had been removed from the premises by person or persons unknown.   That same day, a resident on E. McGilvra Boulevard at 42nd Avenue E. reported that his bag, which contained a laptop and charger, had been ripped off.   And on October 30, a yard contractor working on the 600 block of 34th Avenue E. reported that a leaf blower had been stolen from his truck while he worked at the site.

The only other home break in reported during the period happened on the night of October 17 on the 2000 block of E. McGilvra Boulevard. In that incident, the suspects climbed over a secured back fence, broke into the house by forcing a door, stole a large-screen TV and a significant number of other items (the list of which, for some reason, was redacted in the police report), and then fled the scene. Fingerprints were recovered.

[The map above shows crimes in Madison Park during the period October 16 through November 15. The dollar sign icons on the map represent cases of fraud (identity theft and stolen bankcards), the dollar-bill icons represent cases of theft, the spray-paint can represents a case of property damage, and the star-burst icon represents a case of a home break in.]

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