I live on South Irving St across from Thurgood Marshall. Yesterday a young woman (attractive, nicely dressed, about 15 or 16) rang my doorbell and asked to borrow a cup of sugar. I said sure and she said she had to run home for the cup. I came back to the door with the sugar and saw her walking east on Irving with two young males. I can only think she was checking to see if anyone was home or even to see if doors were unlocked. Sorry I don’t have a better description of the three.
This is an example of the kind of thing that SPD wants you to call 911 about. Just tell them you’re reporting a Suspicious Circumstance where people are possibly casing the neighborhood. And try to get as much suspect description as possible.
I probably live right next to you. 8:40 am yesterday, walk out of my house and there is a man, probably 18 – 20 years old, standing in our easement. He sees me and quickly turns and darts around the corner of my neighbors house on Judkins St. I called 911 immediatley and jumped in my car to look for him but I couldn’t find him. He was a black male, about 6″, Black Jacket, baseball hat and jeans. Does that match your description of one of the men you saw? He was definitley casing, unless he was just being nice and pulling weeds on the backside of my neighbors house.
I live across from Thurgood Marshall too. Yesterday I hesitated driving off on an errand when I saw two teen boys and a girl sauntering up our street. On second glance they seemed a little young. Must have been… 2pm?
Fortunately, there are a lot of people at home during the day on our street. Let’s chat and look out for each other (as always!).
If he had a red baseball cap, that sounds like one of two guys who were casing our apartment when I got home on Friday. They were sliding out from between the building and the fence when I pulled into our lot. I called 911, but I’m not sure what (if any) response came of that.
That’s the same question the 911 dispatch asked me, and I can’t recall the color of the hat. As far as response, the dispatch asked me if they wanted the police to call back or just check the area. I asked them just to check the area, but would probably ask for a call back in the future. Doesn’t hurt to have as much info as possible, that’s why I love this website. I am happy to look out for my neighbors as well.
On a side note… since it is garbage day. It seems as if our Seattle Waste Management team dumps our garbage into their dump truck, and then they see how far the can drop kick the cans down the street. Every week I come home and it looks like the Tasmanian Devil came through the hood. I also think one of them likes to take my lids, then watches as I drag a 500lb water-logged trash-filled can to the curb.
I have to keep calling Utilities because the recycle/yard waste collectors put my empty cans (and my neighbor’s)in my driveway cut so that I have to stop my car, holding up traffic on a narrow street, move the cans out of the way, get back in my car, and finally enter my driveway. When my neighbor and I put the cans out in the morning, we put them on the parking strip at least several feet from the driveway, so the collectors are not putting them back where they found them.
Wow… if you’re reading this post, you may want to shoot over to the post about the flat screen tv ardith saw being “escorted” down the street last wednesday by a group of teens.
Anyway – – it’s clear that our street has a lot of activity right now and it’s great that neighbors are looking out for each other. I wish all of our collective calls to 911 regarding “suspicious circumstances” would get us a patrol car or two…
It’s good we’re looking out for each other as best we can..
karen
I am new to the area and appreciate this site and reading about neighborly comraderie. We live near the Red Apple and also experienced some suspicious activity around 10:30pm last night. We got a knock at the door and my boyfriend answered it thinking perhaps it was one of our new neighbors. The man introduced himself as a new neighbor living in the condos next door, which are actually townhomes. The man proceeded by saying that his partner is caucasian and works for Microsoft. Then he explained that he locked himself outside and needed to pay the locksmith $25 but he only had $21. He asked if my boyfriend could give him $4. He mentioned that quarters would be ok. My boyfriend said no and he walked away. He said he lived next door but it was obvious that he did not. Did anyone else encounter this person. At least now I know it is ok to call 911 in these situations.
The locked-out-short-a-few-bucks-guy has been around for awhile, I answered the door to him once while at a friends at 17/Alder. He offered to leave me his shoes as collateral if I lent him the money…
Yes, the same guy paid us a visit about this time last year with the exact same story. When he said he was a neighbor on Irving, I asked him what his house number was and he didn’t know. Asked him to bring the locksmith over and he wouldn’t. I don’t think he is casing, he is just going door to door and asking people to give him drug money. Don’t give him money, tell him to leave and that you are calling the police, and call the police. He came to neighbors house about 11pm one night when my buddies wife was home alone and he kept banging on the door, scared her pretty bad. It’s bad enough that I can’t walk into my grocery without being asked for cash, at least I can say no and walk away. But to have someone banging on the door of my house asking for money and feeding me a bunch of BS, that just pisses me off. Don’t give that guy money!
It’s important to note here that folks should use care when throwing your door open when there is a knock. Home Invasion Robbery is on the rise here in the neighborhood(s) where someone knocks, you answer and then next thing you know – you are held in your house after a forced entry. Check out who is on your doorstep through a peep hole or a window and ask for ID – I speak from experience here so just be cautious.
The same thing happened to my partner and me when we first moved into our house behind Garfield. The man you described also used the same ‘partner at Microsoft and needing money for the locksmith’ line. We haven’t seen him around since then, which was almost a year ago. But it seems like he’s been around the area for a long while and is pretty harmless.
The “I’ve locked myself out” guy was at our house too! It was during the summer, a Saturday. It seemed wonky and I told him to leave. We were told the same story as posted above – partner works for Microsoft blah, blah, blah.
Thank you for posting about the “cup of sugar” rouse. We are all holding puzzle pieces and when post about the events we can put our pieces together for a picture.
The same guy “welcomed” me to the neighborhood when I moved in five years ago. Except at that time he was “gay and from Bellevue”–in other words, harmless. He needed money because his car was being towed, and offered to leave his shoes as collateral. It was 11 p.m. and I was still naive in those days, so I gave him money to get him off my porch. I later found out that he lives two blocks from me.
We’ve had a couple different people pull this scam on us in Madison Valley–during the first year or so after we moved in.
I actually thought the one guy I talked with myself was relatively sophisticated in his manipulation / con: he came pretty late at night (when our “guard” was down), picked-up on things we asked and turned them into answers, made all kinds of friendly “welcome” overtures, etc.
Yes, same guy came to my house last year (near Red Apple), shortly after I moved in. He must keep an eye out for new arrivals.
Same story: lives down the street, locked out, boyfriend at work (Microsoft), offered to leave his shoes if I gave him money. I told him, “You’re a liar. But I’ll give you 5 bucks anyway.” Which I immediately regretted. He came back two months later and tried the same story! I slammed the door in his face.
He’s also worked UW with the same spiel for years.
Please, if you see him again, spit on him for me.
Yes, the same guy, ” I’ve locked myself out” ” My partner is working at Microsoft” came to knock at my house around 5 pm. I live near Beacon Hill elementary school. I guess you can call me stupid. I did not have $4 as he requested, but I had a $10 bill in my purse. I gave him $10. Funny thing was that yesterday a young girl came over the same time yesterday asking for a donation to support the gay lesbian community. She had a board with paper and looked legitimate. So I gave her $10 too. I am wondering whether both of them are connected.