1. 

   Jordan Van Horn
   

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   Hi folks,

   Just a quick heads up that my car was broken into last night when it was parked on NW 67th St near the intersection with 27th Ave NW.

   There was nothing of value in the car and nothing was stolen, nor was the ignition or steering column tampered with. This morning I found the driver's side window smashed in with the glove box open & the contents, which was just papers, pulled out on the seat.

   I assume it happened at some point in the middle of the night, did anyone who lives or walks in that area happen to see or hear anything? Did this happen to anyone else last night in the general vicinity?

   I filed a police report and also submitted a "Request to Watch" with the SPD which gives the officers on patrol the heads up to keep an eye on this area when they are in between calls. Hopefully that will help act as a deterrent.

   If anyone has additional info, it would be much appreciated and just a reminder to avoid keeping valuables in your car if possible.

   Thank You!

   jvh

   Posted 4 years ago #
2. 

   Linus
   

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   Sorry, no - but thanks for the heads-up, as I am 3 houses from that intersection and sometimes park on the street. It happened to me there about 5 years ago... I think they do one place then because people are wary they move on and only return once we forget,

   Posted 4 years ago #
3. 

   AmyJ
   

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   Thanks for posting. We're on NW 67th and 28th NW and I've forwarded this info to our surrounding neighbors. We can see a small part of 67th from our bedroom -- but we didn't hear anything last night. Sorry about your window.

   Posted 4 years ago #
4. 

   seattletree
   

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   HI, we had a run of smashed windows down our street too, 63rd near intersections of 9th/11th. Nothing much taken except smashed windows...what a pain. I would think it is connected. And i hope that anyone who experiences this, DOES report it.

   thanks

   Posted 4 years ago #
5. 

   oliver
   

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   i got broken into too...same night ..same thing without broken window.. i think they used a slim jim....everything from my glove box on passenger seat..i dont think they got anything but im still angry ..especially because my dog woke me up and i ignored her.. last summer i saw 3 guys breaking into cars on my block at 3am (80th & 29th n.w) cops never came.. i had descriptions of them and my call was ignored..sorry about your window but i gotta tell you that im certain that this is only going to get worse..and i dont think there is enough cops to patrol our streets.. be a good neighbor and try to keep an eye out

   Posted 4 years ago #
6. 

   JZR
   

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   My truck was also broken into Monday night at 73rd and 32nd. Same as Oliver, no broken window, emptied my glovebox and center console. Fortunately I only had a pair of sunglasses in the cab to steal.

   Posted 4 years ago #
7. 

   oliver
   

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   now that you mention it jzr ..i havent been able to find my sunglasses ....tomorrow im buying a rat trap and im putting it in my center console

   Posted 4 years ago #
8. 

   kgemeroy
   

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   Same thing happened to me last night, contents of glovebox on front seat, missing my driver (golf) out of my trunk...nothing else of value. I also called the SPD, but they really didn't give a rip (surprise?). No broken window...24th & 59th. Looks like they were all over the neighborhood.

   Posted 4 years ago #
9. 

   Jordan Van Horn
   

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   Wow, I'm dumbfounded! Sorry to hear we're all in a similar boat but thanks for reporting your stories. It's been so easy for me to read all the recent reports about burglaries in our small business community and erroneously think "oh, that will never happen to me", and then BAM, I wake up one morning and my car is broken into!

   I've only lived in Ballard since last May so I'm no old weathered Ballardite or anything, but I've got to believe that something can be done to curb this crime before it escalates to actually stealing the cars or breaking into our houses.

   Am I alone and/or naive in thinking this? What can be done on a practical, immediate, down-to-earth level? Any ideas?

   Posted 4 years ago #
10. 

    kgemeroy
    

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    Best thing is to call SPD non-emergency line (625-5011, press option 2, then option 8) and request extra patrols around our neighborhood. If enough people call, they'll have officers drive around the neighborhood when they're not responding to an incident, and the increased police patrols should help to deter people from stealing property.

    I talked w/ Officer Lopez (the one who responded to my report of my car being broken into) and he said that often times car prowlers are looking for both easy things to pawn/sell, and papers that could help the theif steal your identity, and he recommended anyone who had their car broken into and papers shuffled around contact the credit bureaus and request a 90 day alert to make sure someone doesn't try to open an account in their name.

    He said the top three crimes in order in N. Seattle right now are Car Prowl, ID Theft, and Fraud, and all three are related to one another, unfortunately.

    You can also call the SPD North Precinct, and ask for the area detective who is assigned to our neighborhood. Request a meeting and share what's been happening, and often times they can "motivate" the patrol officers to try a little harder to cover an area.

    I'm pretty sure property crime is only going to get worse. In the last two weeks we've had the license plate ripped off one car & vandalized (northgate mall parking lot), someone try to steal the wheel off another car (left lug nuts sitting on the ground and tire flat), and my car broken into and items stolen - two of which were piece of crap rentals we were driving as our other car was in an accident.

    Good luck to all of you!

    Posted 4 years ago #
11. 

    seattletree
    

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    that is great of you to post the numbers for non-emergency, thanks. i do think that it is going to take us, to really do something pro-active. I dont know much about neighborhood watch type of stuff, but maybe i can find out what if any of those programs are around and where, i sure wouldn't mind a bit to pull a shift of "being out there" observing, whatever. Although i dont know exactly what the programs recommends/does. Is there any programs of any kind at all in the "hood" that anyone knows of?

    I bet that we have some new neighbors someplace here in Ballard, who are in fact, most likely drug addicts, looking for something/anything to sell. And i mean anything. I was intimately involved with this in a past life some years ago, and I think that our neighborhhood has become someone's "comfort zone". The only way to end this if it's correct, is to catch the people or make it just too hard....by making your presence and all of ours real apparent. Like curtains open, lights on, anything to bring the dark into the light. When you are up to this kinda crap, you really want to be invisible of course. What a drag.

    Be interesting if we could somehow take an inventory so to speak of the entire "Ballard" neighborhood and see just how bad this is. I think it may be more prevalent than we think...how active do we want to be? Want to post signs at every place we can think of, online, in papers left at local hang outs here and there and request a meeting to discuss and compare and brain storm??? Could be fun too, maybe even pot luck or pot luck snacks, lots of ways to do...

    What do you all think??? I just think it would be cool to meet up...

    Posted 4 years ago #
12. 

    Mike
    

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    It's true that the police is stretched thin, and don't really care about car prowls either way. Still, I think it's a good suggestion to request extra patrols and meet with the detective.

    Seattletree's idea has merit, too. A strong, patrolling neighborhood watch would definitely make me feel safer. By which I mean safer for my girlfriend. She's a runner and a bus commuter, and the story of Ballard residences getting randomly beat up has definitely raised my stress level.

    Thing is, neighborhood watches aren't cops. They don't authority to question or detain. And if you interrupt a crime and there's a scuffle, there's the real possibility of getting sued into oblivion by the crook. Not to mention the danger of physical harm.

    Me, I'd be willing to chip in $10/month or so for private security patrols. If everyone in the neighborhood chipped in, there'd be more than enough $ to cover the cost--all without taking up the time of residents, or exposing them to financial & physical danger.

    Posted 4 years ago #
13. 

    Linus
    

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    Remember, by far the best "burglar alarm" is to know your neighbors.... especially the shrinking number of Ballard retirees: they have some time on their hands, an instinct about goings on and a vested interest in not being the victim of a violent criminal. Mr or Mrs. Skaarsgard to lean out and let that person moving your TV out the door "for you" that she's just gonna go ahead and give you a call to make sure. If the person's legit they won't mind her vigilance. In fact they might ask her to move to their own neighborhood.

    Posted 4 years ago #
14. 

    Kyle
    

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    Did you guys know about this website the city has? You can look up crime statistics for each Seattle neighborhood. Drop down menus let you search by type of crime, neighborhood, etc. You can also view trends.

    http://web1.seattle.gov/seastats/doStatistics.aspx

    This map is also part of the amazing site: http://web1.seattle.gov/MNM/

    Here you can view everything from where fire hydrants and public parks and police stations are, to farmer's markets, food banks, health centers, libraries, schools, parking, etc. That's the SERVICE tab. The impacts tab has real time fire emergencies (as far as I can tell). Pretty cool!

    Posted 4 years ago #
15. 

    Linus
    

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    Wow ,,,, Thanks Kyle - thanks cool.

    Posted 4 years ago #
16. 

    Lola500
    

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    Just thought you would all like to know that I was just looking out my window and saw two cop cars driving slowly up and down the streets with spotlights shining on the road and cars. I thought that would bring some comfort to those of us who feel unsafe....

    Posted 4 years ago #
17. 

    AmyJ
    

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    Kyle--yes, about four years ago I downloaded data for my census tract at the time (imported the CSV files), whipped up some graphs and emailed the data to my block watch contact at SPD. (I was looking at crime stats before and after the Rainier Vista projects has been vacated and then broke down crimes by year, by increase/decrease.) He was amazed and then asked for some additional data. I realized that street cops don't ever get this detailed data or a visualization of crime stats. I doubt that they have people at SPD or the "city" who spend time breaking down crimes before or after a specific date, or if they do--I doubt that trickles down to street cops.

    If you have a jones for working with some data, hit that database and play around. If you find something interesting, post it and also send it to the local precinct.

    Posted 4 years ago #
18. 

    oliver
    

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    loyal heights neighborhood watch meeting........march 12th 7pm at the loyal heights community center

    Posted 4 years ago #
19. 

    Mike
    

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    Thanks, Oliver. Be sure to post a headsup about that meeting a couple days before the event. I definitely want to be there.

    Posted 4 years ago #
20. 

    K2
    

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    We had a truck and trailer stolen last March from 19th/77th. We reported on the non-emergency number and about 2 days later received a call from King County Sheriff that they had our truck up in Bothell. Amazingly they had actually caught the guy that stole the truck in another stolen car and they were able to talk him into leading them to additional stolen property. I talked with the Snohomish police the next day and they said he was a repeat offender of this kind of crime. They had arrested him on previous occasions, one time in a hotel room with loads of stolen goods. Also described as a meth user. The trailer was not with the truck and turned up about a week later 5 blocks away (our neighbor spoted it). The felon had dumped it after he took the truck. It was lucky for us because insurance wise we probably would not have gotten the replacement value on the trailer. Tools were stolen and the dash torn apart. It still cost us a lot in time and money to repair even with insurance. People keep mentioning that there is a new element around Ballard causing this crime. I think no matter where you go the crime seekers will come if there are goods they are after and a habit to feed. Our trailer sat on the street or a wee and no one reported it as questionable. The police said that most stolen cars are joy type rides that turn up a few weeks later. Usually they sit for a while until someone notices them to be out of place. We all need to be aware of whats going on around us and not be afraid to support something out of place.

    Posted 4 years ago #

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