The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Rude Awakening
Just before 4 a.m. Nov. 5, a woman living in the 800 block of Fourth Avenue North called 911 to report she heard people in her backyard, and that they had tried to open her back door. Police arrived and found nobody in the yard, but did find fresh footprints in the mud.
The woman, who lived in a ground-floor apartment, said she’d moved into the building about four months ago and had been having problems with people entering her backyard since she moved in. That morning, she said she had been in bed when she awoke to voices in the yard. She said she heard a couple talking about coming back to the yard to take things.
One of the people attempted to open the rear sliding door, and then knocked on it The victim locked herself in her bathroom and called 911.
Busy Burglar
At approximately 12:30 a.m. Nov. 5, a couple called 911 after returning to their home in the 1500 block of Seventh Avenue West to find it had been burglarized.
The victims had been away from home from 6:45 p.m. until about 11:05 p.m. that night. While looking around their yard, they noticed that their next door neighbor’s house had been broken into as well. The neighbor wasn’t home when police responded, but one of the victims had called him to let him know.
The burglar had broken a kitchen window of one house, and a rear sliding glass door of the other house. The victims who called 911 told police they would secure their neighbor’s house until he returned home.
Overnight Burglary
At 11:45 a.m. Nov. 2 the manager of a business in the 300 block of Third Avenue West called 911 to report an overnight burglary. She said when she came into work at about 5:30 a.m. that morning, she found the front door propped wide open and garbage strewn throughout the doorway.
The building’s motion alarm had been tripped at 2:30 a.m. The manager said she didn’t think anything was taken during the burglary, and door that was open wasn’t damaged. She said she called 911 to report the incident because she wanted it documented. She said the business had been broken into in the past.
Lucky Victim
Just before 3 p.m. Nov. 7, a man called 911 after coming home from a vacation and finding his house had been broken into.
He said he’d been gone since 10 a.m. Oct. 29. When he came home, he found both his back door and front door ajar, and a screen bent. Cabinets, closets and drawers had been rummaged through. He said nothing was missing despite the burglar obviously looking through all of his dressers and his late wife’s jewelry box.
Police tried to search for fingerprints, but determined the burglar was wearing gloves. A neighbor told police she had known her neighbor was out of town for the past week, and she’d noticed the back gate and a back bathroom window was open.
She said she didn’t think much of the window being open, as the neighbor sometimes leaves it open.