January Police Blotter

Car break-ins down, home break-ins up

We spoke too soon last month about the abnormally low number of burglaries in the neighborhood.  In January there were six such incidents, at least three of which were forced entries. Probably the least impactful of these occurrences (though certainly one of the strangest) happened on January 7 on the 1600 block of 43rd Avenue E.  A woman reported to police that she had returned to her home that evening and discovered that some of her possessions had been moved around, that there was a bottle of wine missing from her wine rack, and that her cats had apparently been fed by the intruder (opened cat food cans were evident).  She speculated that the perpetrator could have been her landlord or the ex-girlfriend of her boyfriend.  There was no forced entry.

Two days later there was a forced-entry burglary on the 1000 block of 37th Avenue E., as well as a non-forced-entry burglary the following day, January 10, on the 2200 block of 40th Avenue E. (Canterbury). In that later incident, someone entered a house through a “dog door” and removed a camera and a laptop computer from the residence.  There was also evidence that the suspect had looked into the medical cabinets in the bathroom.

On January 17 the police received a report that three storage units in an apartment building located on the 1600 block of 41st Avenue E. had been broken into the previous day and several items stolen.  The units were located within laundry rooms on different floors of the building.  Only one of the storage units, however, had been secured with a padlock.  One of the victims fingered a former tenant as a possible suspect in the crimes, stating that the resident had been moving out of the building on the very day of the break-ins and was seen going in and out of one of the laundry rooms at that time.  No fingerprints were recovered from the crime scene.

On January 26 victims at a home on the 2200 block of 38th Place E. in Canterbury reported to police that sometime between approximately 8 am and 8 pm, persons unknown had broken in into their home and stolen two laptops, an iPad, jewelry valued at approximately $5,000, a pair of silver cufflinks, and three antique pocket watches.  Police discovered that a pool chair and a barbecue grill had apparently been used by the intruders to help them climb to a second-story master bedroom balcony.  From there, they forced entry through the French doors of a bedroom. The suspects then ransacked the bedroom and other rooms in the residence looking for valuables.  They exited through the French doors of the living room, which the owners found open upon their return.  Shoeprints evident around the house were photographed and fingerprints were recovered.

There was a separate burglary incident during the month in the vicinity of 37th Avenue E. in the block just north of E. Madison St.  No details were immediately available.

Only one car prowl was reported in January, this on the 600 block of Hillside Drive E. on the morning of January 25.  There are normally three or four car break-ins per month in the neighborhood, though this is a somewhat seasonal (meaning fair weather) kind of crime.

There were also two “crimes against persons” reported during the month, which involved harassment or threats to kill.  One of the incidents (shown as an exclamation-point icon on the map above) does not count as a Madison Park crime, however, since it involves a tenant phoning his landlord in Broadmoor and making threats from his rental house in Kirkland.

The other incident, which also involves trespassing, certainly does count.  On January 9, a person well known to police from many previous incidents at this location, parked his car across the street from the Bank of America branch, crossed the street and confronted the bank guard.  According to the guard, the man called him a “fascist corporate whore” eight times in a very loud voice.  The suspect then walked east on Madison.  Apparently the man has engaged in this behavior on multiple occasions, claiming that he was upset over the Bank’s decision to lower his credit limit.  The police could not locate him, however, on this occasion.

[Map courtesy of the Seattle Police Department.  Starburst icons represent burglaries, car icons represent car break-ins, blue icons represent trespass incidents, spray-can icons represent graffiti or other property damage, dollar bill icons represent found property, and red icons represent harassment.]