The following are selected reports from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. They represent the officers’ accounts of the events described.
Unexpected Guest
Just after 1:15 pm. on Feb. 4, the owners of an unoccupied house in the 500 block of Galer Street called 911 after finding somebody squatting in the house.
They said they’d come to check on the house that day, and found a basement window broken. One of the owners entered the home, and heard noises from a room upstairs. The two owners went upstairs and found someone in one of the rooms.
The suspect refused to leave, and when the victims insisted that he needed to go he became aggressive, threatening to stab the victims with needles. A friend of the owners was on scene, and called 911 from outside.
As the suspect began aggressively approaching the victims, they closed the door on him, trapping him inside the room. After a few minutes they heard glass breaking, and the victims opened the door and saw that the suspect had broken a window and jumped out.
Responding police found the suspect running near Sixth Avenue North and Comstock Street. The suspect’s hand was bleeding from breaking the window.
He was taken to a nearby hospital for stitches before he was arrested and charged with burglary, malicious mischief and harassment.
The victims estimated the suspect did about $2,500 of damage to the house.
Jewelry Heist
Just after 7 p.m. on Feb. 1, the owner of a house in the 1800 block of Nob Hill Avenue North called 911 to report her house had been burglarized, and that she believed the suspect was still inside.
Responding officers checked inside the house and found it to be empty of suspects, but saw it was ransacked from an apparent burglary. Cabinet doors, dresser drawers and closets were open and rummaged through.
The victim told police she’d unlocked the front door when she got home and heard scratching sounds coming from inside the house, but she’d never seen anybody come out. The burglar pried open a rear kitchen window.
The victim said she’d had contractors working on the outside of the house over the previous few days, and she’d left the back door unlocked for them, but she hadn’t left the back door unlocked on this day. In the first floor bedroom desk drawers, dresser drawers and a hutch were open and rummaged through.
Upstairs closets and a bedside table upstairs were also pilfered from.
The victim told police about $17,000 worth of jewelry was taken from the home.
Tripped Alarm
Just after 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, police responded to a burglary alarm trip at a house in the 200 block of Garfield Street.
The victim said he wasn’t home when the alarm was tripped. He said he came home after his alarm company called and found the gate on the east side of the house was unlatched. He also noticed four cylinder blocks stacked outside of the kitchen window.
The window had been forced open but there was no damage.
The victim said he’d checked the inside of the house and nothing was missing.
Picked Lock
Just after 9:45 a.m. on Feb. 1, a woman living in the 1200 block of Third Avenue North called 911 to report her garage was broken into sometime overnight.
She stated the burglary occurred between 7 p.m. the previous night, and 8 a.m. that morning.
She said the suspect came into the backyard and picked the lock to her garage door. She was sure the door had been locked.
She said nothing was missing from the garage, but she was concerned that the suspect was able to pick the lock, and also because her neighbor’s car had been prowled overnight as well.
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