Art emails this morning:
Hi, I hate to write in with negative news to post, but I wanted to share that my car was prowled last night. I am on 12th Avenue Northeast and the prowling happened between 3 and 3:30 a.m. and it was a quick job. They just rifled through my car and took random stuff, but I don’t keep items of value in the car.
Car prowls are by far the most common crimes reported in Seattle.
(Danny Westneat’s second column last year on the subject is here.)
Interestingly, after times when a car-a-day was being prowled or stolen in Maple Leaf, the crime map for the month so far shows only four car prowls reported here. Not counting Art’s, which is too recent to show up on the map.
Art continues:
However, I saw a guy on a bike trying to get inside my car this morning around 6:30. He was yanking on all of my doors and looking through the windows. I immediately ran outside and asked what he was doing and the guy was startled and made up some story about looking for a friend’s house, getting lost, etc…he was not especially coherent.
I was able to get a few photos of him, which I forwarded to the police officer who arrived to take a statement from me. Officer George said he would forward the pictures to the precinct detectives for their records. I don’t think this is the same prowler who came by at 3 last night, since that person already went through my car.
I’m not sure if it’s legal/ethical/problematic for me to send you pics that i took for posting online, since the police already have those. I will describe the guy as Caucasian, in his 20s, fit/slim build and looks totally like a university student with trendy clothing/shoes/hairstyle. He wears glasses and was riding a nice-looking road bike.
Grab some firewood and get medieval.
I think someone was trying to prowl cars in the parking lot of the condos on Roosevelt between 92nd and 94th, but instead, they took some bolt cutters and stole my white Raleigh bike. Easier pickings, I imagine.
The City has inspectors who come out and can cite land owners for “Harborage”, which is essentially failure to maintain a property adequately, leading to rodent problems. They can force you to clean up trash and overgrown weeds/blackberries.
I’d love to see the photos of the car prowler.
I’m the OP. I’ve lived in the area for decades and I agree, the prowling and crime has not gone down over time. My loss, as far as I know, was quite limited, so I would’ve just reported it online and be done with it except that I happened to catch someone who was up to no good. And that someone happened to stick around long enough for me to take pictures of him.
The person that gained access to my vehicle went through it very quickly and was not very thorough. Said person was also quite dirty, as quite a bit of dust and dirt were left on my seat and the floor. Fortunately, he closed all doors and I had no surprise rodents waiting for me (that’s a different story altogether…met a Public Health official canvassing the neighborhood a few months ago who said there’ve been several reports of rodent activity possibly due to certain properties nearby that are not well maintained).
Should have read “I’d think you’d have the same legal rights.” above.
Note to self: get firewood.
Thank you MLL for all you do.
Regarding the legality of posting pictures… if you took these pictures on public property… like a street… then you are legally entitled to post them. This is a federal law that has been on the books for a while… and it protects photographers.
If the car was on your property, I’did you’d have the same legal rights.
Should have kicked his ass. My neighbor beat one with a piece of firewood and our car prowls went way down.
P.S. While not much of import was taken, my truck interior reeked of paint thinner. I was told this indicates a meth user–the chemicals they smoke comes out through the pores….
I had my car rummaged through overnight 2 weeks ago, NE 91st/Roosevelt NE. Not enough loss to report immediately, but I did register it with online police report, for statistical records. And I let Maple Leaf Life know. No record of that here though….huh?
MLL: As with “lost” cats, we sometimes get overtaxed with car prowls. However, don’t immediately see an email from you.
Car prowling incidents haven’t gone down. Instead, victims have stopped reporting since cops are telling victims that there’s nothing that they can do unless they catch the perpetrator committing the crime and then it’s “catch and release.” If the cops do stop a suspect with the victim’s property, the suspect has to only say he or she just found the property abandoned on the ground.
The only reason to report a car prowl is if your loss is in far excess of your insurance deductible and then there might be a negative impact on your insurance rate if you submit too many claims. However, there is a significant downside to not reporting car prowls.
The Seattle Police is a statistical driven. If car prowling incidents are down in our neighborhood, police resources will be allocated to other neighborhoods.