Two arrested for stealing van

Officers arrested two men and recovered a stolen van after responding to a report of a disturbance in the Highland Park neighborhood on Thurs. evening, July 28.

Police received a report of a two males yelling at passersby from the inside of a white van driving in the area of 7th Avenue S.W. and S.W. Elmgrove Street. Officers ran the license plate and discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen.

Officers found the van in an alley on the 700 block of S.W. Kenyon Street. As they examined the vehicle, a man approached them, asking questions about the vehicle. At that point, the officers realized that this wasn’t a helpful neighbor but in fact, the man was the driver of the stolen van. They then found a second suspect hiding in some bushes in a nearby driveway. The accomplice had several warrants for his arrest.

Officers also found about four grams of methamphetamine and 18 unidentified pills in the van, which was impounded. The two suspects, ages 23 and 24, were later booked into the King County Jail. Detectives are still following up on the investigation.

Hate mail left at 22nd Ave home

Police are investigating a threatening, racist letter, which was left at a West Seattle home, located on the 3800 block of 22nd Avenue S.W., around 10 p.m. on Tues., July 26.

The homeowner found the note on the front door. There were a number of racial slurs and references to Black Lives Matter activism in the letter.

Police collected the letter and evidence and are looking at is as a case of malicious harassment, which is Washington’s hate crime statute.

Bikes stolen from garage on Sylvan Lane

Police responded to a report of a burglary at 2:30 p.m. on Sat., July 23. A homeowner on the 7100 block of Sylvan Lane S.W. said three bicycles were stolen from his detached garage and that someone had entered one of his cars and taken $20 from the console.

The man said that normally his garage doors are kept closed, but one was open in the morning. He does not keep the main door into the garage from the backyard locked, and he thought he heard noise in the middle of the night. No evidence or fingerprints were found at the scene.

Boat thief arrested

A 28-year-old woman tried to set sail after stealing a dinghy from a West Seattle beach on Friday, July 22.

Police received a call from a man around 12:30 p.m., who reported that a woman had rowed out to his 24-foot boat anchored off the 4100 block of Beach Drive S.W., and then climbed aboard, smashed a window with a piece of wood, blew an air horn, and threw a lit flare into the water.

SPD Harbor and Southwest Precinct officers took to the water and were soon joined by the Seattle Fire Department and Coast Guard at the scene. Crisis Response officers used their intervention training to convince the woman to surrender and then took her into custody. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center for an evaluation.