The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department's West Precinct. They represent the officer's accounts of the events described.
Storage Wars
Just after 5 p.m. on May 25, a person reported that the storage unit they rent in the 3000 block of 15th Avenue West was broken into sometime between 1 p.m. on May 3, and 4 p.m. that afternoon. Among the items they reported stolen were a brand new video game system, a blu ray player, and three bags filled with DVDs.
To gain entrance to the locker, it is believed that the burglar ripped the slide lock off the wall, without having to unlock or somehow compromise the padlock securing the door. The manager of the storage building moved the person whose unit was burglarized to a different storage unit.
Stolen Safe
At 12:24 p.m. on May 25, police were called to an office in the 700 block of Ninth Avenue North in response to a burglary. Employees said they came in that morning and found an emergency exit door had been pried open, and a safe stolen from inside the office. The safe contained personnel paperwork, but nothing of monetary value.
Broken Window
Officers responded to a residential burglary at a home in the 1100 block of Willard Avenue West just before 1:30 a.m. on May 26. The homeowner said they had been away since 5 a.m. on May 22nd. When they returned around 12:20 a.m. the day of the report, the homeowner didn’t immediately notice the home was broken into, but noticed it was cold inside.
They went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, saw glass on the floor, and realized the glass window from the back door was shattered. The dressers and cabinets in the master bedroom and office were open, but the homeowner wasn’t sure what had been taken. An exterior door in the bedroom was also unlocked, leading officers to believe that is how the burglar exited the house. Police estimated the window replacement would cost approximately $2,000.
Rude Awakening
Just after 10 p.m. on May 26, a person living in the 3200 Tenth Avenue West called 911 to report someone was in their backyard, trying to enter their home through the back door. Police responded to the area, and the homeowner told officers they had been sleeping when they were woken by a loud thump outside at about 9:50 p.m.
The person looked outside, and saw the suspect holding the doorknob to the basement door, trying to get in. The person yelled at the suspect, who looked up and then walked away heading southbound. Responding police searched the backyard and found a five-foot ladder that the victim said didn’t belong to them. It was suspected that the burglar may have taken it from a neighbor’s yard.
Suspicious Loiterers
Officers responded to a 911 call just before 5 a.m. on May 27, reporting two suspects had just broken into a building under construction in the 400 block of Dexter Avenue North, and were last seen getting into a car and heading southbound on Highway 99.
Two construction workers said they’d been on their way into work at 4:25 a.m. when they saw the suspects coming out of the building through a boarded up door on the northwest corner. They checked the door and saw it had been forced open, and a roll of copper wire was sitting just inside the door. The workers confronted the suspects, who were dirty and sweaty. One of the suspects was putting a tool inside his backpack, and refused to show the workers what it was. The suspects said they were just smoking by the door, and they wanted to be left alone.
Midday Burglary
At approximately noon on May 27, a housekeeper called 911 after arriving at a home in the 2700 block of Fifth Avenue West for work, and seeing two men wearing handkerchiefs over their faces run out of the house carrying stuff and jump into a Dodge Caravan, which sped off.
The housekeeper said this was the first time she’d been to the house, so she couldn’t be certain that the stuff in the suspects’ hands was stolen from the house. However, one of them was carrying a purse. The van sped off east on West Newell Street towards Third Avenue West. While police were talking with the housekeeper one of the residents of the house returned home. The front door had been kicked in, and the burglars had stolen jewelry, a purse and a laptop.
Doomed Bike Ride
Just after 6 p.m. on May 27, a person living in the 3100 block of West Commodore Way called 911 to report their house had been broken into while he was out on a bike ride.
The homeowner’s front door had been pried open — police found pry marks on the door — and the door jamb was broken. The person’s belongings appeared to be rummaged through, and several things were stolen, including a wallet, a laptop and a pair of binoculars.