Updated – Burglar caught!: Police activity overnight at Fifth Ave. N.E. and N.E. 90th.

Update Sunday Aug. 8:

Laurie emails this morning that the police were out again east of Roosevelt Way Northeast along Northeast 92nd Street:

At around 1:15 this morning I saw flashlights in the backyard. I went to the front of the house to grab the phone only to find a police car sitting in front of the house with no lights and the motor running. It would be appreciated if the police would have knocked on the door to let me know they were investigating instead of scaring the hell out of me thinking there were theives in the backyard.

I left the front of the house for a minute to find the police car was gone. Five minutes later 3 officers emerged from the neighbors backyard. The nightly police disturbances are getting out of hand. If the police are going to be investigating they need to let people know they are there otherwise someone may mistake an officer for a thief and it may not end very well.

Update Saturday afternoon 3 p.m.

Linda (see below) emails that one of her neighbors, who is a Seattle Police officer, has explained by email:

A couple in the 500 block of NE 90 St. left their front door unlocked. An 18 yo W/M entered the house and stole a cell phone off a table. The husband noticed this and chased the guy outside. The suspect ran into the back yard of a house and started to jump over fences from backyard to backyard. The wife called 911 and SPD responded quickly, setting up a grid containment of the neighborhood.

That was all the lights and sirens we heard. The suspect went to ground, laying down in a large planter behind I believe the house (in the 500 block of Northeast 90th Street).

Two K-9 units arrived and they started a track from where the husband last saw the suspect. In a few short moments, the dog picked up the scent and located the suspect. He said he went into the planter because he was tired and wanted to sleep. He was ID’ed in a show-up and arrested. We think there were 2 others with him, a male and female, but they were not located. He was booked into KCJ for burglary. He has an extensive juvenile sheet for burglary and car prowl.

Everybody, please, make sure your vehicles are locked as well as your home. Do not leave anything that could be considered valuable in open view in your cars.

They commit crime after crime until they are unlucky enough to be caught. If anybody sees ANY suspicious activity, call 911 IMMEDIATELY.

Don’t hesitate. A cop would rather have an unfounded call or an arrest then having to take a report of a crime that will never be solved.

Most car prowlers and burglars are serial prowlers and burglars. This is their job. So getting one into stir greatly reduces the amount of crime.

Thanks, Linda! In addition, the initial report on this instance has shown up on the city crime map. Make that reports: “Offense #1 BURGLARY-NOFORCE-RES – COMPLETED. Offense #2 THEFT-CARPROWL – ATTEMPTED. Offense #3 TRESPASS – COMPLETED. Offense #4 WARRARR-MISDEMEANOR – COMPLETED.”

—————————————————————————————–

Two neighbors are asking what happened overnight around Northeast 90 Street and Fifth Avenue Northeast.

Linda emails this morning:

I don’t know what was going on but in the wee hours of the morning, ~2:00 am, we heard the whoop whoop of a police car siren, then police with dogs were walking and searching the neighborhood (went into our back yard searched all around, then into the yard behind us on 90th).

And Beth, from around Northeast 92 and Eighth, writes: “I woke up around 2 a.m. or so and heard lots of shouting, a dog barking, and I think the police were involved.”

We don’t immediately know what was up, and neither does the police crime map. (The map does yet show two robberies that took place overnight north of us on Lake City Way.)

Any other neighbors have information?