The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Stolen Tools
At approximately 3:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, construction workers at a home being remodeled in the 3400 block of West Blaine Street called 911 to report a burglary to the house that occurred over the weekend. One of the construction workers told police that he’d closed and locked up the house at 4 p.m. on Oct. 14. When workers arrived at 7 a.m. the next morning, they found somebody had broken into the house and stolen about $5,000 worth of tools. The construction worker said when he locked up the house on Friday night he’d put the key to the front door in a lock box on the front door. When workers came in on Monday morning, the lock box was gone. There were no signs of forced entry to the house, so most likely the burglar found a way to open the lock box. Once inside the house, the burglar cut a cable that was securing the construction workers’ tools.
Alarming Burglary
At approximately 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 12 police responded to a report from an alarm company reporting multiple trips of the security alarms inside a house in the 1600 block of 31st Avenue West. When officers arrived, they found the window of the back door broken, and the door standing open. They searched the inside of the house and found it empty. They found the alarm panel on the main floor ripped out of the wall. Later officers dusted the panel for fingerprints and found some useable prints. In the master bedroom it looked like the burglar had gone through a vanity and a closet, additionally there were several shoeboxes that were left open. Another bedroom on the second floor and two dressers that appeared to be rummaged through.
Police spoke with a neighbor who said she’d heard the audible security alarm sounding from the house, but it stopped after a couple minutes. She called 911 to report it. She and her husband reported seeing two suspicious vehicles in the neighborhood around the time of the burglary. Officers called the homeowner, who was out of town, and reported their findings to her. Without her being present it was too difficult to determine what may have been stolen. They gave her some tips on enhancing her home security system.
Stolen Jewelry
Just after 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, a woman called 911 after returning to her house and finding it had been broken into. The house is located in the 1200 block of Second Avenue North. When police arrived they checked the inside of the house for burglars, and found it empty. They saw that the burglar had taken a brick from the back yard and thrown it through the window of the back door. The brick not only damaged the door, but the wood floor on the inside of the door as it landed. Once inside the burglar pulled a speaker for the alarm system off the wall. The victim walked the interior of the house with officers and found that a bunch of jewelry was taken. She said all of her costume jewelry was gone, this included mostly necklaces and earrings. She also said four watches were taken including two values at $6,000 each, and a vintage watch from 1916. She didn’t know the value of the last two watches. Overall the victim reported the damage and loss to her property to be about $12,000.
Picky Burglar
Just after 8 p.m. on Oct. 7, a woman living in the 2500 block of 31st Avenue West called 911 to report her house was broken into. She said she had been gone since 5 p.m. and had returned to find her back door standing open. Officers searched the inside of the house and found nobody inside. The victim walked the house with police and said the only thing out of place was an open drawer in the master bedroom. Police believed the burglar was scared off by the house’s loud burglary alarm. It appeared the burglar came onto the property through the fence in the back yard. He or she then kicked in the back door. There were multiple triggers of the burglary alarm: in the kitchen, the hallway, and the family room. So the burglar walked through many rooms of the house, but didn’t take anything.