Twice in the last dozen years we had our cars broken into while parked outside our house. (Another time we had the entire car stolen.)
This week makes the third time we’ve had a car prowled. The first two times they 
just jimmied the locks. This time the car had an alarm – so they busted both rear windows. We found it just as Monday’s rainstorm started.
Getting this fixed took the rest of the day – plus $373.76.
We had neighbors report several different types of incidents over the weekend.
Dawn wrote:
We wanted to alert the neighborhood that there are some adolescent pranksters making doorbell ditch attempts and if that fails, they will pound aggressively on the door. We experienced this last night (Saturday). Three adolescent girls and one adolescent boy rang the doorbell and when we didn’t respond they pounded aggressively on our front door ( next to our sleeping baby’s room) then ran down to the next house and hid behind parked cars and in driveways to watch.
That same evening Elizabeth emailed: “There were two cars speeding down 97th to Roosevelt, turned on Roosevelt and sped back down 98th heading down toward Lake City. I saw one of the license plates since they just about hit me as I was walking. Any idea how to report this type of thing? The cars were full of young people….”
(The answer to that, according to Terrie Johnson at the Seattle Police Department, is “call 911 immediately.”)
But the most common crimes appear to be against cars. Either prowling them or stealing them.
The map shows prowled and stolen cars in Maple Leaf for the first four weeks of September. It shows more than 20 reports, including three on my street (not yet including mine).
That’s approaching a car a day, right here in our neighborhood. For some of July, it was more than a car a day. (Some of the icons, especially up around Northgate, stand for three or even five reports.)
They are so common that unless you have more than $1,500 in damage and loss, the police department wants you to report them online, but says it likely won’t do more than keep statistics on hot spots. From the Community Online Reporting Program website:
Filing a CORP report online is the easiest way to get a free report to submit to your insurance agency. When you file a report with CORP, it will be reviewed. Unfortunately these types of crimes usually have limited solvability so most cases will not be investigated.
I will say the online form has its moments. The menu of items that might have been taken from the car includes : “Cape? Casket or funeral urn? Handcuffs? Bullet-proof vest? House-arrest bracelet?”
@MapleLeafBob
I have walked our neighborhood streets in the wee morning hours consistently over the past decade and only encountered a problem once. Nothing has ever happened at the Transit Center that I’ve seen. The Northgate library though continues to remain a magnet for groups of young people just hanging out and occasionally causing trouble.
I’ve never seen car prowlers. Usually it’s teens in the parks doing pot, drinking, and spraying graffiti. And bar fights and people passed out drunk on the sidewalks. Most disturbing is the countless instances of drunk driving on Roosevelt. They stagger into 7-11 just before the bars close down to get more alcohol and get into their cars and drive off. If only police could just sit on the side street outside the store for a few weekends.
Do we even have a neighborhood block watch??
@Terry:
The guy that shot one of the people breaking into his truck should have been rewarded for removing one dirt bag of the street.
I bought my wife pepper spray for when she walks our dog late in the evenings. I think more people should carry pepper spray or mace. Our society cares more about being PC than allowing people to effectively defend themselves and their property so people will have to resort to non-lethal but effective measure. If I was a person that used the Northgate Transit center a lot, especially in the evenings, I would definitely have pepper spray on me. If a couple of those punks got sprayed in the face I bet they would think twice about trying to steal a purse or Ipod.
Notice that most of the activity is south of N.E. 92nd Street. I myself have developed a habit of taking a walk, around the neighborhood, late in the evening; but lacking a cell phone, don’t know what I’d do in the event of seeing a car break-in.
Back in the fall of 2008, there was an incident where a young man caught three others breaking into his pickup truck, and shot (and killed) one of them; when it appeared he was drawing a gun out of his trousers. The guy with the truck ended up spending about six months in jail for manslaughter.
One wonders what the effect that has on those intent on car break-ins – assuming they know of what happened.
When we lived in Maple Leaf, we had one car stolen and totaled, and then, a few months later, another badly damaged in a hit-and-run. When perpetrators are caught, I think they should be forced to provide some kind of restitution to those whose property they damaged.