By Cassandra Baker, Intern

11:23 a.m. on January 11th. 101st block of Greenwood Ave N

A man called police on the morning of January 11th to report that his barbershop had been burglarized overnight. He said that he closed the business at about 8:00 p.m. on the 10th. When he arrived for work at 11:15 the next morning, he found that a window had been shattered. Inside the barbershop, three chairs had Xs slashed on the back, and the waiting bench had been slashed from end to end. The flat screen TV had also been shattered. The victim said that two laptops, an iPod and an Xbox had been stolen.

The victim said that that he had had a “run-in” with someone who may have wished to vandalize his barbershop, but the responding officer determined that the person in question was currently in jail. The victim could not think of anyone else who would be angry with him.

Beware ‘phishy’ email titled “Seattle Traffic Ticket”

Seattle Police report that the City of Seattle Department of Information Technology has become aware of an email sent to hundreds of seattle.gov accounts. The emails immediately appeared suspect. Further investigation revealed that they contain a poisoned link that should not be opened.

The emails look something like this:

From:
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 8:18 PM
To:
Subject: SEATTLE TRAFFIC TICKET

Seattle — Department of Motor Vehicles
TRAFFIC TICKET
SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
THE PERSON CHARGED AS FOLLOWS
Time: 0:11 AM
Date of Offense: 20/12/2011

SPEED OVER 50 ZONE
TO PLEAD CLICK HERE AND FILL OUT THE FORM

The City of Seattle does not have its own Department of Motor Vehicles nor does the Seattle Police Department send email notifications of a traffic violations. Also, note the date – the day is before the month. Again, do not open the link. Delete the email or place it in your junk folder.

The City of Seattle is working with Microsoft to determine the origins of the email. Preliminary investigation indicates that the senders are overseas.