February 16

More police news from our Maple Leaf neighbors (a door-to-door meat salesman?)

Uncategorized

11  comments

Update Friday, Feb. 17: Maria writes:

I don’t live on the block but it looked like someone had stolen mail on 95th between 12th and 15th last night. This morning many of the mailboxes were open and there was some mail scattered along the street.

——————————————-

Two neighbors emailed us Wednesday with police news.

Sue just wanted to give police credit. “About once a week I see our local SPD hanging out by the school zone on Roosevelt as a watchful reminder to slow to 20 miles an hour. Great job SPD! Way to keep our kids safe!”

Thanks, Sue.

Another neighbor on Northeast 86th Street had a somewhat bizarre experience. A white van stopped in front of her door late Wednesday morning.

A man came to my door and said he was a delivery guy making his rounds, but had no uniform and no package or information with him. I have a large pit bull, and he seemed very interested in my dog and asked lots of questions about him. He then asked if we were interested in steaks, that he delivered them, and when I said we’re vegetarians, he just talked more about my dog then drove off.

The woman was suspicious. Prelude to a home invasion? A pit bull theft ring? “I called the police right away and made a report, and was very impressed when two patrol cars were in front of my house in about five minutes.

After some research, which revealed no door-to-door steak delivery companies in Seattle, I did find this post on a West Seattle blog: http://westseattleblog.com/2009/09/2-door-to-door-alerts-meat-and-meet

Just wanted to give the neighborhood a heads up.

The West Seattle Blog post recounts several such incidents from 2009, beginning with: “A young man came to my door and asked if I would like some free steaks after…as the stories goes….he had to make a ‘big delivery’ in the neighborhood, and had these ‘left over.’ It seemed very, very suspicious….”

About the author 

Sara W

You may also like

Sephora coming to Ballard Blocks 2

Sephora coming to Ballard Blocks 2

Self-Defense Class

Self-Defense Class

Fall Budget // Accountability Partners on SPD’s Crowd Control Policies // Internet for All // COVID Rental Assistance // Community News You Can Use

Fall Budget // Accountability Partners on SPD’s Crowd Control Policies // Internet for All // COVID Rental Assistance // Community News You Can Use

Leave a Reply

michele Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. We had mail theft on 97th north of Oly View early last week.
    Also last week, I saw the aftermath of three car prowls near 8th Ave between Oly View and 88th St.

  2. This guy actually stopped me at a traffic roundabout..flagged me in my car from his van, like he maybe needed directions or something, then tried to pitch me the “steak surplus” schpiel.

  3. I live outside of Seattle now but I like to keep tabs on what’s happening near my Mom’s house 🙂

    Anyway, I bought some steaks from Steakhouse Inc. a couple years ago, two youngish guys in a white van. Gave me a decent deal, the steaks were ok, but not amazing. Probably got my money’s worth. Have done this a couple times now from 2 different companies.

    Not all white vans are criminal. Some are just a bit unprofessional or amateurish. I took a cell phone pic of their license plate when I made my purchase, deleted it when the deal went through ok.

  4. @ m – great…we live on 106th!!! Already had my husbands dirty work boots stolen off the front porch 4 times in the last year – and by dirty, I mean DIRTY – mud, concrete, gross. Thanks for the tip – radar is on high alert now.

  5. Might be worth mentioning this. I live in Meadowbrook and there was a burglary near by (off 106th) a couple of weeks ago and a neighbor told me that a white van with no hubcaps had been seen at the home. I don’t know any other details…

  6. Same thing happened to us on Wednesday. I was on the phone and a loud bang bang bang on the front door – it took me a little longer than usual to get to the door since I was on the phone, but I opened the door and this young man jumped – he was looking in the back of our pick-up truck in the driveway. Same line – had a delivery up the street and had left over meat. White van, with some meat logo on it, but didn’t get the name. We live in Wedgwood / Meadowbrook area. Last time this happened it was the young asian man selling magazines and wouldn’t leave the front porch!

  7. I have had this happen twice (I live in Maple Valley), and have done a little reseach and talked with police. It’s a scam. They sell you “flash frozen surplus steaks” for cheap, but when they thaw, it is either not steak, or even meat for that matter, or a cheap cut of meat disguised to look like steak. They sometimes try to use the name of a legitimate meat company in Auburn. The name escapes me, but they have nothing to do with it and do not even deliver.

  8. Don’t live in Maple Leaf neighborhood, but got to this site after a link to the story. I live N (Everett area) and had a similar incident about 2 years ago. This scam/neighborhood casing technique has been widely used for awhile now.

  9. This happened to me in Edmonds near Shoreline just before Christmas. Raised my spidey-sense, although I did not call police. I never saw the van – he was on foot. I thought it was just a way to get people to pay up front and then never deliver anything – or it could have been stolen.

  10. We had a similar experience last month. I watched as a pickup truck (branded with some sort of meat delivery company name on it – sorry can’t remember the name, but it wasn’t Schwan’s) drove down our street and stopped at a house about half a block down. OK I thought. Maybe they ordered some meat. But then the truck headed back up the street and stopped at our house (skipping all the houses in-between). The guy knocked on the door and had some story about having a surplus order of meat that he needed to get rid of. I politely informed him that I wasn’t interested and sent him on his way. The whole thing seemed a bit odd…

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Subscribe to our newsletter now!