Burglary on 21st & Union

Dear Central Area Neighbors,

Our home was burglarized! Our home is located between Union & Marion on 21st Avenue. Between 8 pm on Friday, July 13 and 10 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, when unknown burglar(s) entered our home through an upstairs rear kitchen window. They used a chair to climb up to our deck, then used a blade to slice the window screen and crawl through. According to the SPD officer who took finger prints at the scene, some prints indicate the person(s) may have been a juvenile or a child, and therefore more than one person may have been involved. While they attempted to gain entry from a rear ground floor window, one of these robbers took a shit on the South side of the house, near this ground floor window. We wonder if this might be a part of their MO. Have you had a similar experience?

While we are still unsure what else might be missing, the following items are confirmed stolen: 2012 Acer laptop computer, 2006 Apple desktop OS X, 2 digital cameras Panasonic & Kodak (2011), Men’s platinum gold diamond Tiffany’s keychain, Wii game system with controllers & games, Burton snowboard backpack (multi-colored checker print), Knock-off Coach purse, orange waterproof messenger backpack, and all the liquor from our liquor cabinet. We think these robbers were young or alcoholics because they took cooking Sherry, Dry vermouth, port wine, and Creme de menthe–wow, really?! But they left our prescription drugs alone. Our daughter is especially upset as they rummaged her bedroom, stole her new laptop with all her school work on it since January, and took her special snowboard backpack given to her from a dear friend. The desktop is a big loss, as it has 5 years worth of pictures and videos on it, and not all were backed up. :( (I know, hard lesson to learn….)

So we are appealing to our neighbors and CD community. Have you seen a group of teens carrying backpacks and purses filled with electronics and liquor walking the neighborhood the past few days? Has someone you know recently appeared with any of these items in their possession, without adequate explanation? Did you hear or see anything suspicious on our block the past few days? Have you experienced a similar robbery in the past few weeks or months? Any information would be greatly appreciated, please send an email to [email protected].

Sincerely,

Rachelle, Scott & Bailey

14 thoughts on “Burglary on 21st & Union

  1. I’m really sorry you have experienced these losses and that feeling of violation of your home. Consider attending an East Precinct Advisory Committee meeting for some support and ideas about how to prevent any more burglaries. The next EastPAC meeting is Thursday July 26, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Garfield Community Center Community Room, 2323 East Cherry Street, Seattle, WA 98122

  2. Start by calling the local pawn shops, especially the one on Rainier. Also, as someone who worked with AFIS fingerprint techs for years, they told me when my house was robbed “cops take terrible, almost useless prints.” If prints were indeed taken, follow up with the robbery detectives and make them accountable for sending the prints through AFIS, which runs the FBI database for a match. When my house was robbed the robbery detective told me “we only submit the prints if we have a suspect.” That’s lazy bull. Insist they submit the prints through AFIS. If the match happens to be the felon 3 doors down, you want to know this.

  3. Rachelle, Scott, Bailey, I am SO SORRY. This hits very close to home, literally, for us. Plus, you’re our friends. This is terrible. We will keep our eyes peeled and make sure we and our neighbors are extra vigilant with keeping a lookout and securing our homes. Please let us know any updates! You’re all in our thoughts.

    *EDIT* I will admit, this sounds like teenagers. (Not our teens, of course! They’re wonderful!) I hope someone is discovered, but unfortunately if they’re minors the charges won’t stick for long.

  4. 75% chance that you know them and they know you. Sorry to say, with juvinile crime they will likely stick to safe bets. People they are comfortable with. You might even hesitate to prosecute. Try not to jump to the assumption of which of your daughter’s aquaintances it was, you can’t tell by looking at them.

  5. I agree with Del. Some quick self investigation might turn something up. Might not, but, you may solve your own case and prevent others.

  6. grumbo is right, most juvenile crimes are opportunistic crimes. Also, your children may be unaware of the wolf in lambs clothes when they are discussing their types of laptops, cameras, snowboards etc…you can tell someone and they tell two friends and so on and so on and so on….it seems like liquor theft is on the rise. Several friends of mine work at grocery stores and tell me that juveniles come in and steal the liquor and then sell it on the street. Again, juvenile faces less time then you or i if we were to do this type of theft. :(

  7. @Yeah – Ever heard of tongue in cheek? No one’s perfect, but yeah, both of us have really good kids who have known each other since kindergarten. I’m not ruling out that people our kids know might do something like this, but they wouldn’t. (I know you’re going to say everyone says that…)

  8. Unfair to rip on Liz for that great comment which anyone could have seen was funny.

  9. Sadly, as junior high kids, we used to steal booze from our friends parents. But looting the house? I did know kids that did that. Funny, some of them actually recoverred to be decent citizens. Then some of the straight jock guys spiralled into crack addictions and life in hell. You just never know about how kids will turn out. I must have lived in a tough neighborhood. No shootings, but, lots of perverts, kids falling into drugs. I left and never looked back. Last I knew virtually all my life long friends were failing. Like I say, I never looked back. Strangely the old homestead is now Newcastle and a completely different world.

  10. I live right across the street and have had a black woman in her 40’s and 50’s wander on to my and the adjacent property a few times over the last 2-3 years. When I confronted her the first time (a few years ago after I caught her smoking something in my back yeard) her response was “I need to release my bowels” I was caught off guard by the comment. In talking with the next door neighbor I was told that a bucket in the yard was used as a catch all for some fecal matter. I did see the woman within the last two weeks again hiding behind my car smoking a cigarette. She didn’t look spry enough to climb up windows or anything but like I said…. for what its worth.

  11. @ for what It’s worth. I live on this block and I have also caugt the same older woman in our backyard twice in the last two years. The last time we caught her smoking crack and angrily confronted her. It is unsettling, to say the least. You are not alone.

  12. I wouldn’t assume this is teenagers just because some print or fraction there of looked small enough to be a child or juvenile. I mean honestly, what does that mean? I’m middle aged and my hands are much smaller than my teen son’s. Does that mean I have child hands? What a silly thing for whoever said that to you to imply. Have them RUN the prints. Insist on it! My house was robbed by a man and a woman. The notorious Patrick, who tries to scam everyone in the hood for money door to door late at night, could climb in a window, too. It could be anyone. Whoever robbed you though stole what they knew they could sell. And perhaps they’re a boozer, too. They could have heard a noise and left before getting to your RX drugs. I would assume the worst (adults) rather than assume it’s kids. Change your locks. Get an alarm system, and call the pawn shops. Lastly, burglars come back sometimes 2 weeks to 1 month later (just happened to a friend in Bellevue!) because they know you’ll replace a lot of your electronics. If you’re living in the CD without an alarm system, that’s honestly a very costly mistake.

  13. I am so, so sorry you were violated in this way!!! I cannot imagine what that must feel like. My car was stolen on the same block about a month ago, and that in itself felt so, so horrible and devastating. It looks like it’s high time that we all make a very concerted effort in tightening up security in the ‘hood, as much as is humanly possible. Barring having a security system, which a lot of folks just can’t afford, I think we as neighbours need to be alternate security systems. Keeping a watchful eye and ear and calling the police with regard to absolutely ANY suspicious activity is well worth the efforts, for all involved, because we are all vulnerable.

    A suggestion for everyone, everywhere, is that if you are going to be out of town overnight, if even for a night, try to have someone stay at your house to maintain a presence, take mail/newspapers in, etc. Once the gist is gotten that a house is vacant, especially for more than one night, burglars are in like Flynn. And it seems like thieves are much more bold these days, with a devil may care attitude. They are absolutely fearless and just don’t care.