Landscaping assault
On Aug. 18 a guy was yanking out raspberry bushes and spraying their roots on a hillside along S.W. Kenyon when a neighbor stepped onto his back porch and started yelling at the guy, saying if he keeps spraying nothing will ever grow back. The landscaper explained the idea was to eradicate the bushes so new plant life could grow in their place. It was a conversation the two had had several times in the past. This time, however, things escalated. The irate neighbor grabbed his garden hose, fired it up and sprayed the victim for 30 seconds. After the thorough soaking, the victim called police. When they arrived, officers knocked at the suspect’s door to no response, so they called in his license plate for an identity and told the victim to call again if anything happens in the future.

Bird’s eye view of a burglary
A woman spending time on her second floor balcony on Aug. 30 saw two suspects pull up to a neighbor’s house in a black Nissan Sentra near the intersection of Highland Park Way S.W. and S.W. Holden St. It was just before 7 a.m. as she watched the burglars go to work. First, they parked next to the house, got out and rang the doorbell/tried the door handle on a rear door. They got back into the car and drove out of sight. The two men slinked back the house and into the fenced front yard where they tried the front door (locked), then removed a screen from a nearby window and broke the glass. At that point the witness from above yelled at the suspects and they fled the scene.

Burglary prevention tip
Take extra care to hide your jewelry. Recent police reports have shown a spike in burglars entering homes and specifically targeting jewelry, leaving the high-priced but bulky electronics alone. Reasons for this include the obvious – a pocketful of jewelry is far less conspicuous than carrying a 52” flat screen TV, the economic - gold is selling around $1800 an ounce right now, so the pawning payoff is big, and the protective - jewelry rarely has serial numbers, so it is harder to trace once stolen and sold.

Seattle crime stats for the first seven months of 2011
Here is a recap of citywide crime from the Seattle Police Department:

Through July 2011, Major Crimes are down citywide by 9 percent when compared with the first seven months of 2010. This continues the downward crime trend that occurred citywide in 2010. Through July of 2011, Violent Crime is down 1 percent compared with the same time period in 2010, with rapes and robberies trending down and homicides and aggravated assaults showing an increase.

Property Crimes are down 10 percent across the city in the first seven months of 2011, when compared with the same time period in 2010. Vehicle thefts and larceny/thefts are trending down while burglaries are up slightly.

Here are some recent crime numbers for West Seattle (from the beginning of May to the end of July):

Vehicles stolen: 147 (out of 1047 citywide)
Burglaries committed: 181 (out of 1585 citywide)
Robberies committed: 29 (out of 347 citywide)

Robberies by block: 2700 Alki Ave SW

Burglaries by block: 4500 38TH Ave SW, 5200 Erskine Way SW, 6000 48th Ave SW (2), 8200 Northrop Pl SW, 2300 46th Ave SW, 4700 50th Ave SW, 7300 44th Ave SW, 7700 Highland Park Way SW, 5200 21st Ave SW, 9400 12th Ave SW, 2300 51st Ave SW, 6700 21st Ave SW (2), 5600 23rd Ave SW, 8600 32nd Ave SW, 2600 41st Ave SW, 7900 Fauntleroy Way SW, 2400 Harbor Ave SW, 8800 32nd Ave SW, 8600 25th Ave SW, 9200 2nd Ave SW

Car prowls by block: 4000 California Ave SW

Vehicle thefts by block: 2100 California Ave SW, 8300 39th Ave SW, 3500 SW 104th St, corner of Harbor Ave SW/California Way SW, 3000 SW Avalon Way