There has been a recent rash of house burglaries in the CD in recent weeks. Please be vigilant and report all suspicious activity. Here are details of three reports in the past week from the CNA chat list (with identifying address info left out):
Incident 3:
Just want to alert folks that our neighbors at 15XX 25th Ave. S were also burglarized this week – twice, on Tuesday and yesterday. It seems that they got in through an unlocked door (in one apt) and an unlocked but closed window (in the other). Be sure to lock your house and also keep an eye out for “suspicious activity” (whatever that is).
Incident 2:
Our neighbor on 24th and just south of Charles was also burglarized during the day. They broke a window in the back and were in process when neighbor got home. She saw them leaving the house and running across back yard and jumping the fence, on to 25th Ave S. This happened late afternoon on Mon. She described them as teenagers – they took her ipod, camera, liquor and maybe some cash. She has a dog and they did something to the dog (she described the dog as timid and soar) and also poured a bunch of dog bisuits on the floor. Police have a description of kids.
Incident 1:
We live on 25th Ave. S between Lane and King. We work at home which must have helped us to escape burglary for the past 12 years until yesterday. I was out of country and my partner went out from 9am to early afternoon. When he came home, he found the hinge of the door to the basement was broken. He knew we were burglarized. It should have been more than one person who must have closely monitored my partner’s in and out of the house and small enough to break in through a tiny toilet window in the basement.
Our new computer, a little cash and my jewelry were gone. They also took old returned checks which I’m a little concerned about. Fortunately they left my old computer and external hard drive intact, so I can keep working, which is a good luck out of bad luck.
When somebody stole your computer, what would you do? We are more concerned in the data stored in the computer than the computer itself because we do business on line. We appreciate your input about what to do other than changing the important passwords.
For example, how can we prevent the thief to keep reading our email communication? Computer is great to store important information but the damage is also great once it’s stolen.
There have been two recent break-ins on 32nd Ave a bit north of Union. No leads on suspects yet.
Just curious if anyone knows if these homes had any alarm systems or anti-burglary devices installed? I have a security sytem in my place now, but if thieves are still breaking into homes that have alarms then I wonder what else can be done to prevent burglaries?
like the guns that fire shots
Add another on 24th, just north of Pine.
…in Leschi near corner of 32nd & S Washington. No one home, and neighbors saw four juveniles in the neighborhood kind of milling about and looking at houses. Big rock thrown through basement window in back. Alarm went off soon after they entered (it seems) and they did not take anything, leaving the way they came in (via the window). I consider myself lucky, with the only damage being the window.
…the window they broke was six inches from an alarm-company sticker. Guess they thought it was a fake.
The break-in attempt at my house near 27th & Cherry was almost 2 yrs ago now but just thought I’d comment that my alarm company signs/stickers were clearly visible and the door the thief crowbarred open had one. It was about 6 weeks after we bought and the attempt was within 20 mins of my wife leaving for work (leading us to believe that whoever broke in had been watching our patterns). Whoever it was ran as soon as the alarm went off as far as we could tell because nothing was taken. Anyway, our theory is that we were “tested” to see if we were using fake signage because we haven’t had another break-in attempt since. The cop mentioned that a lot of people use fake signage.
Both the police and the alarm companies said that, while the stickers and signs help (all things being equal, I guess), if you have a lot of stuff visible that burglars find enticing (electronics, computers, stereos, etc.) they know that they can get in and out before the police are even dispatched. Many aarms go off for a certain amount of time, and by that time, they are gone. Their thinking is that they have time to get in and get out regardless of the alarm going off. I guess the only way they would be caught is if someone saw them, immediately called 911, and the police were cose by, close enough to be there within a minute, or if the police were so close they hear the alarm and immediately get to the house….
Where exactly was this one? I didn’t see any other reports of it.
To the folks asking about how to secure data on computers – theres lots of encryption software (some freeware).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_encryption_software
Vista comes with BitLocker
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/bitlocker.mspx
My neighbor two houses down came home to find someone hopping fences between our backyards, and my next door neighbors had their house broken into two days ago. We were luckily untouched, perhaps because we have security stickers everywhere (marking our ACTIVELY MONITORED security system), and we keep our blinds closed when we’re not home, as well as keeping valuables out of sight.
Still, I pity the criminal who attempts anything with our home. Their very last thought will be that they just made a very poor decision.
Sad to hear about the break-ins. I know this is 10x’s better than an actual burglary, but someone just stole our hanging plant that we put outside our front door only 4 days ago. What kind of crackhead takes an outdoor plant?! Ugh, so annoying!