Neighbors in the My Ballard Facebook Group have reported several car prowls, the most recent theft involved two cars at 67th St. and 6th Ave. (pictured) and another three cars with broken windows at 70th and 9th Ave.
Using SPD’s crime maps, we counted the car prowls reported to the police from the top of Phinney Ridge through Ballard, and the number totaled 27 over the last week. There were 7 reported stolen vehicles over the same period. This is higher-than-average activity compared to the Seattle crime database for the Ballard area, but overall car prowls have remained rather consistent over the last 12 months.
Car prowls are not a new phenomenon in Ballard, but whenever we see the aftermath of one, it’s always a good reminder to keep your valuables out of view — or better, out of your car. Here’s SPD’s tips for how to prevent — and report — a car prowl.
What would be even better is if SPD actually started doing something about it instead of just giving “tips” that are useless when lack of enforcement practically makes car prowls legal in Seattle. How about some police patrols during the wee hours of the morning when this is happening? Even better if the Seattle City Council actually started funding for more police officers.
I’m kind of ambivalent on this. I hate it when I find my car had been broken into, but if I’m walking my dog in the morning and I see a car charger with an unlocked door….well let’s just say I have a lot of car chargers.
@Josh — Absolutely right. I like our local police, at least the dozen or so I have met here and there, and we need more of them. While some responsibility obviously rests with SPD command and control strategy, the anti-cop rhetoric voiced by CM Mike O’Brien and others as well as the inability to quickly staff up due to limited number of training slots for SPD at state training facility are what really drives this.
Being against a wildly over-expensive North Precinct HQ is one thing, but O’Brien used that topic as a chance to tar cops with a wide brush and feed a “fear the cops” mantra. At least CM Juarez called him out for that specious logic.
I believe our cops are generally good people who want to uphold the law and serve EVERYONE in our community. I also understand my POV as a white dude is not going to be the POV of everyone so my mind is open to making policing work better in this community. But we need more cops…well-trained, well-paid, cops.
What I don’t get is who is parking on the street. I thought the general consensus was everyone needs to have off street parking.
My truck was one of the vehicles that were broken into. They got away with $3,000 worth of specialty Plumbing equipment. An officer came out to take my report 8 hours after I called it in and pretty much told me there’s nothing they could do except take fingerprints and he didn’t even do that. It was in u.s. Bank parking lot and there is a camera pointed directly at my truck and I told him that and he didn’t even say anything about going to look at the footage. Are cops are just lazy and they don’t care unless somebody breaks into their car which I think we should start doing. Everybody Target a cop and go pop his tire or something see how they like it. They aren’t untouchable I’d like to kick one in the nuts. they pretty much told me to go look for it myself and if I find something to let them know. I wonder if I’m getting police wages. oh wait, I make good money
FFS people, don’t leave anything in your car. Does this really need to be said? All you clowns who keep leaving shit in your car are just perpetuating the crime. If there was never anything left in any car, no one would break into cars. How hard is this to figure out?
@FFS
Why are people leaving anything in their locked houses for that matter? *sarcasm*
Why are women even walking along at night *sarcasm*
These 27 car prowls represent another concrete metric for success in Seattle’s endless War Against Sanity.
Maybe we can just slap a tax on parked cars until the thefts cease. The lack of enforcement of vagrancy laws (oops we ditched those), public intoxication (hobos with beer cans visible everywhere) and smaller “victim-less crimes” led to an emboldened mindset among the more predatory criminals, so now we all have to deal with the consequences of decades of denial about property coupled with a peak heroin epidemic overlapping with a homeless crisis.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes Seattle. Then again, the people who back idiots like Sawant and O’Brien are techies who make money off sweatshop products by day, and preach about “evil capitalism” at night. Trying to make any sense of it is pointless. They can’t understand why you just don’t buy another $5000 in stolen items with your service worker salaries, you “dumb reactionary Nimbys”.
“All you clowns who keep leaving shit in your car are just perpetuating the crime. If there was never anything left in any car, no one would break into cars. How hard is this to figure out?”
Really? Blaming the victim? Rather than the perp? I can totally sympathize with these people who had their property broken into, and stolen. As for the cops, not able/wanting to do anything, why would you waste your time reporting it? You gotta take the day off work, wait around for them to show up, and then get told there’s nothing that they can do?
I’ve had our car broken into and gone through a half dozen times! I’ve had to stop reporting it because it costs me more to do so than just move on. I know I’m not alone.
Well the homeless need to PAWN stuff Right
it would not be compassionate to try to stop these thieving junkies – they need their medicine.
@ FFS, are you on drugs man? What ruined city are you from? Detroit? Baltimore perhaps? It’s where Seattle is heading. So if it’s “don’t leave stuff in our cars” what about home break-ins? Should we raise taxes for city issued blinds for windows in all homes then soon too? It’s this exact knuckleheaded feelings that are THE problem. It’s this thinking/compassion that got us here. Is having your car broken into some type of rite of passage today? Allowing these human shreds of debris to incessantly roam our streets is a losing proposition. Only if there were a Republican to blame here………………………
Well, I have this theory. If I don’t leave anything in my car I won’t have anything stolen from my car. So far it’s been working out great! I don’t leave anything in my car and I don’t get anything stolen.
I thought it was just common sense. Maybe not.
What needs to be done is to put these “people” south of Madison where they belong. Whoever’s idea it was to integrate this city is an IDIOT!
Lol nice try on the “south of Madison” crap, but everyone can see that our thief “neighbors” are very white methy/junkie.
Scott, a car is not a house, a car is not a rocket, a car is not a mouse, a car is not your pocket. Ruined city? FFS man, deep in the country at trailheads, at exotic locations at beaches, pretty much everywhere people park their car, there are signs imploring you to LEAVE NOTHING IN YOUR CAR. FFS, only idiots leave shit in their car. I guess you leave shit in your car. Draw your own conclusions.
@GUESTY
There is a reason I moved to Ballard and not the sh*thole southside. But doesn’t seem like there is a difference anymore.
Until the day arrives when everyone simply keeps their hands off others stuff, it seems to me the best idea is to not put yourself in a position to have your stuff stolen. In other words, don’t leave your sh*t in your car. It’s not really fair to play victim when you leave your sh*t somewhere you KNOW there’s a pretty good chance it will be taken.
And yes, Ballard has become a total sh*thole.
And finally, I live in an rv and someone keeps sticking their moronic recall obrien stickers on my vehicle. I don’t touch your sh*t, so please keep your hands and your stickers off my vehicle.
@FFS & SPD
In all seriousness, please offer a solution for those of us who DO NOT leave anything in our vehicles – neither visible, nor hidden – literally NOTHING, and still have a window smashed in. I’m not sure why a prowler would target my vehicle (older model Volvo wagon).
It is perplexing how they could see the vehicle is empty, and still smash a window. Is it “just in case they get lucky?” All I know is I’m still out $389 for a replacement window.
And before someone suggests, “Why don’t you just leave the doors unlocked?” I used to… until someone used my car as their personal smoking lounge and shooting gallery.
@Perplexed, there really is only one solution. I’ve already stated it. If nobody left anything of value in their car, there would be no car prowls. It really is that simple.
The police can’t stop it unless there is a policeman on every block at all times. And yeah, it sucks to have your car rifled through, it happens to all of us. BECAUSE PEOPLE CONTINUE TO LEAVE SHIT IN THEIR CARS. Which is my point. FFS, does this really need to be said again? All the clowns who keep leaving shit in their car are just perpetuating the crime.
@FFS
Perhaps you didn’t fully read my statement, so ‘FFS’ read the tldr version here:
Absolutely nothing left in vehicle – of value or otherwise
Window smashed in; nothing taken because nothing to take
Cost $389
Have tried leaving doors unlocked; found cigarette butts and a needle cap
Now what?
I could possibly understand the argument that they wanted to check a trunk on a sedan, but this is an older station wagon without tinted windows. And to the point on costs: it costs over $200 to have a car professionally cleaned to remove smoke and ground in ashes. I’m not about to argue cost benefit analysis on which I would prefer – isn’t still significant money out of pocket.
@SCOTT – My fondest wish is that the nicest African-American, Latino and Asian families move into the homes that surround yours. Right next door. Wherever you look. COLOR!!!
@ Perplexed–
Just leave your door unlocked and clean the cigarette butts every 4 months if you’re going to complain about your smashed in window.
Maybe you could clean your own car and also save $200?
You probably have some entitled sticker on your bumper which makes you a target
@Perplexed, you clearly don’t understand. If nobody, none of your neighbors, no one in Ballard, no one in Seattle ever left anything in their cars, then people prowling cars would never get anything. They would break into cars and get nothing. Then they would prowl some more cars and get nothing. If there was never anything of value left in any cars, they would never get anything. Because they get nothing out of the cars they earn nothing for their efforts. Because they would never earn anything, because nobody ever left anything in their car, they would eventually stop prowling cars. FFS the people that leave shit in their car are the reason we get our cars rifled through and windows broken. FFS we’re the victims of people leaving shit in their cars.
I hope that was clear. Let me know if you have any questions.
@VIC-TIM – if you live in Ballard in an RV, you are part of what is making the neighborhood a sh*thole. Go park your RV at an RV park where it belongs. The neighborhood is sick of freeloading RV campers.
@FFS
Ah, I see the light now – It’s not my fault; it’s everyone else’s fault! I wish I could have come to this conclusion on my own. Until the prowling stops, I can just blame fellow Ballard residents, and really everyone who doesn’t clean out their vehicles nationwide.
I will feel bad though… these prowlers will have nothing left to supplement their incomes once we all clean out our vehicles, or just get rid of vehicles outright. There’s no way they’ll adapt and target other things to steal; no way at all. Thank you, no further questions, Squire(ss).
@Sandy
Good point. If I just deal with the cigarette butts and burns, and the needle caps on a quarterly basis on my own, I could save a lot of cash! Say, you wouldn’t mind if I Releive myself in that car share befor you tag-in for your commute, would you? I mean, you could just use another one, right?
Sorry to disappoint you, but you couldn’t pick my car out based on stickers, custom trim, or otherwise. Aside from the state-issued license plate, my car is as stock as it was 18 years ago. Of course with the obligatory just-right amount of scratches and dings from those who think a smart car can park itself.
Maybe the person tried to fight their reflection in my window. I think I’ll go with that – it seems the most plausible so far.
@Perplexed, I’m so glad you are finally able to comprehend my point. But don’t fret! There will never be a time when people never leave items in their car to be stolen. And because that won’t happen, your car will continue to be broken into.
Having all cars empty is the only real solution to ending car prowls. But I don’t have hope for that ever happening.
As far as the solution you asked for, that’s the only one, isn’t it? Yours is?
@FFS
You nailed it. We’re all screwed. They’ll pillage our cars, until the government takes our cars away on any number of grounds. Then these thieves will pillage our yards, homes, places of work and play, until we all decide to give up those things too. Everyone will relinquish all material possessions, and then, THEN there will be nothing else to steal!
To prevent theft, it requires money, time, and intelligence – and desire; all of which are finite in supply. There is no golden egg, but there is an ‘acceptable’ threshold of proliferation based on current societal norms and majority consensus. The point that many are making (whether they are victims or not) is that the current climate has swung outside these socially accepted or permitted norms, and needs to be corrected.
You are correct that by employing common sense, many will realize that they had been an easy target, and thereby enabling thieves in their persuits; however, this is not a controlled environment where only one variable is being tested. Although car prowls are the subject of the article here, the general refrain is that theft – or more broadly, property crime is far above the currently acceptable threshold, and a more broad solution needs to be attempted and enforced. You cannot simply stop one specific subcategory to stop all property crime.
As for the correct approach, perhaps enforcement is a more effective tactic since prevention and avoidance don’t seem to be working. It may not be the best solution, but it might have a more positive effect than duck and cover.
@Perplexed, thank you for your dissertation. Sorry, it was too long and I didn’t read it. Just remember, prevention is always better than cure.
@FFS
Some folks are part of the cause. Duck and cover, bud.
*munches crappy microwave popcorn*
This thread gon’ be good!
@FFS
Property is theft!
Just kidding. There’s no bigger loser than a crime apologist. Go get some vegan ice cream and a big fluffy dog to hide behind in case someone breaks in after your loved ones. For the rest of us with cursed with the burden of dignity and a healthy level of testosterone, we’ll continue to demand that the city provide the public safety that it TAXES US SO HIGHLY TO PAY FOR with the level of competence it DEMANDS from us taxpayers. After all, if any of us were as bad at our jobs as the city leadership, we would have been fired long, long ago.
Funny how that works. Seriously, what are you, 15?
I’ve recently decided that my levels of bitterness have reached such toxic levels that I have no choice, and based mainly on advice from my doctor, to move to a new city that is the utopia I’ve only dreamt about.
Is Ed Murray haunting the comment sections on My Ballard now?
Ed, is that you?
Are you having a sleepover at Mike O’Brien’s house again?
I have an obsession with Ed Murray for some unexplained (though probably easily explained….) reason. Also soy boys.
@ No-Brien – so who died and left you in charge friend-o? Stop the madness and come back down to earth why don’t you. For as long as I can remember there have been folks staying in vans and rv’s in Ballard without any real problems. Now I’m not sure exactly why so many degenerates have descended on Ballard in the last couple few years (though I’m pretty sure all the free meals and other handouts play a large part), but there’s no doubt there are WAY too many of these creeps here now. And they’re still coming. I think St Lukes and the Bridge should stop the handouts for a couple months.
@Vic-Tim: There have been free meals and handouts in Ballard, since Ballard was a drug and prostitute ridden City a day’s ride from Seattle.
For recent drug addicts descending on Ballard, Seattle, Washington and the USA as a whole, you gotta look for blame elsewhere. You might check out the recent “Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016”, which basically allows pharmaceuticals to dump opiods on the open market and prevents the DEA from doing anything about it.
You might also read into the various services that were cut over the past 40 years to give tax cuts to the wealthy (hint: mental and drug addiction services).
But hey, it’s easier for the mentally ill MyBallard commentors to claim that Mike O’Brien is personally shuttling them into Ballard, dropping them off with a weeks supply of fentanyl and a crowbar.
when i visit my grandkids in phoenix arizona i keep my car safe by hiding my 8 year old in the back seat with a shotgun while i go grocery shopping and well i do just fine
@Randall J — Child’s play. My car is parked behind my Ballard house, rigged with a nuclear weapon that will detonate the second someone fiddles with the door handle. Ever seen what lutefisk looks like at 100,000,000° Celsius?
@ O’Brien’s Flaming Dumpsters your comprehension is poor. I loathe criminals and would love the police to do something about it. But in order for police to prevent car prowls, they would need one policeman on every block. Sure, that would be great. I’m all for it. But even you can figure out that isn’t going to happen in Seattle, or anywhere. So, what should one do? DON’T LEAVE SHIT IN YOUR CAR! If people leave shit in their car, the car prowling will continue. FFS, why is this so hard for people to comprehend?
@BGT Since The Beginning
Perhaps we could stop playing games with being a sanctuary city, and direct some of our whopping taxes toward actually POLICING the city instead of having some fake, data-map (doctored) response system intended to give the public the ILLUSION of public safety. I get it that community college kids need to protest Trump every week, but maybe even they could take 5 min from their knife hits and imagine Cap Hill/Pike Pine a safe clean stretch of city for people taking night classes or working late.
The priorities here are absolutely as*-backwards. There is no reason for a city this small to be held hostage by ACLU lawyers, roving bands of hobo junkies a few core areas of open narcotics dealing, their gang enforcers AND their litigious family members.
Muh Che Taylor
@Bong Toking Boomer Pacifist. You definitely sound stoned. Might have some hallucinogens mixed in there too. One thing we can be sure of is that you can’t get enough of Fox News. FFS, is Sean Hannity your idol? Oh, and here is some sound advice for you – DON’T LEAVE SHIT IN YOUR CAR!
@FFS
I don’t watch TV. Believe it or not, some people got “woke” to Democrat corruption watching Seattle being ruined i real time around their feet over decades. I won’t apologize for demanding the city DO ITS JOB while people like you demand we “adjust to the new normal”. Have you been to a functional city recently? Give it a try. The shock up returning here is something special.
“adjust to the new normal”. What an idiot. I had my first car prowled in Ballard in 1978. It actually took me a couple of years and a couple of more car prowls to figure out, damn, I SHOULDN’T LEAVE ANY SHIT IN MY CAR.
Have I been to a function city recently? WTF, do you think there is any city in the world that doesn’t have car prowls? FFS, even in Mayberry Barney Fife was chasing car prowlers. Perhaps there aren’t any car prowlers in Pleasantville. Is that the functional city you’ve been visiting?
@Bong Toking Boomer Pacifist: Being a sanctuary city is actually better for local taxpayers. It means that Seattle is NOT going to divert resources and manpower towards illegal immigrant witch hunts.
If ICE wants to perform their own witch hunts, they are free to do so and Seattle does not have the power to stop them. Then it becomes a national taxpayer cost.
“There is no reason for a city this small to be held hostage by ACLU lawyers”
LOL, you ARE stoned.
@Truth
See, this is exactly the problem. You’re unaware that the police are hog-tied by various reviews and require several officers per response in order for the protocols and procedures to be witnessed and scrutinized. I don’t know what to say to a person who doesn’t understand how the police department has been politicized to the point of ineffectiveness by our moronic “leadership”.
As far as illegal immigration, well, your absurd characterization of border enforcement as a “witch hunt” reveals your stunted view of the world. You guys tax soda pop, demonize smokers, obsess over “safe spaces” but then scream about “fascists” when someone wants a safer community and functional border with sane immigration policies. The cognitive dissonance in this city is up there with the Flat Earth Society or some goofy cult.
Careful there, you almost spilled your bong water, Daddy-O
@Sockpuppet #3765: And let me guess, your solution is to run the City like the GOP would, right? We should definitely emulate such great cities as Jacksonville, El Paso and Oklahoma City! Or maybe Fresno, Anaheim and Miami?
And which GOP should we invite to run our city? Eisenhower’s? Reagan’s? Trump’s?
Must be time for your crazy pills! You DID seek mental help like I suggested, right?