Rash of Car Thefts

[NAB]

Last week, at 8:30, my husband ran into our friend's house to pick up our daughter. He accidently left the keys in the ignition. He was inside their house for about 1/2 hour - and came out to find the car stolen. This was on Edgemont! The car was recovered (ironically - my brother-in-law saw it parked down by his work in Georgetown).

When we got the car back, besides being a total mess inside. Food everywhere, and they had been smoking. We found two other people's owners manuals and registrations inside. My husband was able to find both owners from the addresses on the registration. (One he actually found through Facebook).

Now get this - the same friends on Edgemont my husband had been visiting, this week had their car broken into right behind Starbucks. Daylight - they smashed the window and stole his briefcase. Unfortunately he had a spare set of keys in the brief case.

They came back to his house the next night and stole his car. IT had Lojack, so they found it very quickly and there was a short chase, but they got away on foot near Green Lake.

When this website was really active last year, the cops were everywhere. Any time of the night you would see one or two parked in the village - and things definitely calmed down.

We are being hit by a small group of the same black men over and over. They've simply decided that Magnolia is an easy mark. The cops we talked to suggest that if you see someone who doesn't belong in the neightborhood - at any time of the day - call it in. Once it gets too hard to move about unacosted by the police, they will move on and find another area to do their smash and grab crime. And if you do get your car broken into - make sure you don't have anything that identifies you in the car - in fact, if you can, next time you register your car, have them send the registration to your office or PO Box.

BTW - we asked the police why they grab the owners manuals. Here's what they said - many newer cars come with a "valet key" - this key is oftne left in the owners manual. So they grab the owners manual, then come back a few days later and grab the car.

And by all means - if they get your purse or keys - make sure you get your house rekeyed!

[Isabelle Ochsner]

We also had a theft from our car on 3/4/09 at approx 6:30pm. My husband had pulled my car out of our garage and parked it on the sidewalk for approx 15-20 minutes to move a filing cabinet from the garage to the front of the house. He left the doors unlocked and didn't realize my purse & briefcase were in the car at the time. I got in my car at 6:50 to go to ballet class and didn't realize my purse was missing until I got to class. At that time I figured I had left it at home accidentally. When I got home @ 9:00, I quickly realized that my purse was missing along with our garage door opener and my briefcase. We called the police and immediately started callling my credit card co's. Turns out he used a card at Bartells, Union 76 gas station (6:54pm), paid his verizon wireless bill and proceeded to take out $303 from Keybank just before midnight and $303 just after midnight at Bof A. He didn't waste any time using the cards. I was on my computer at 12:05am and saw that he had just withdrawn $303, so I sent my husband down to the village to search for him. Unfortunately, there was noone that looked suspicious. The cop had left our house around 11:30pm. I called 911 a 2nd time to let them know the perp was in the village using my card, but they didn't do anything about it. Because he remained in the village all night and did not leave Magnolia leads us to believe he lives nearby. I was told by a local cop that 90% of the crime is committed by our neighbors. Nice, huh? I proceeded to get the Key Bank and BofA's security people on the ATM cameras so we could see what the guy looked like. (nobody else was going to get the video, so I took that job on myself!) Key Bank's camera wasn't working that night but BofA's was! After many phone calls to many people, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the video and the photos of the guy taking $ out of my account! I just got this info yesterday and I need to ask the police if it is ok to spread it around.If they give me the green light, I'll post it everywhere. The thief found a wallet key that Lexus provides for emergency use in my purse. It is shaped like a credit card and can be used when you lock yourself out of your car. He also had my biz card so proceeded to come to my office on Monday 3/9 and steal my car. I found out around 6:30 pm and once again called the police. My car was a big white '06 Lexus GX470 w/ UW Husky plates. No word yet on my car. However, my palm pilot was recovered in a stolen BLACK Lexus up in Everett last Sat 3/7. The Lexus had been speeding 100 mph through residential streets in Everett and the cops were chasing the car until it crashed and the occupants escaped on foot. The Snohomish Cty detective that called me on Thursday said they found 25 people's property throughout the car. Unfortunately, only my Palm Pilot was among the items recovered. The Lexus had been reported stolen 3 weeks prior from 98115 Zip code. Among the items recovered were several garage door openers, registrations, stolen plates, id's, credit cards, keys, (alot of valet keys), owner manuals, needles and even digital cameras that had photos of the losers doing drugs in the car! These perps basically live in the stolen cars as long as they can before they get caught. Every piece of evidence recovered was from Seattle residents. And mostly Lexus, Mercedes and high end cars. I don't know if the guy who originally stole my purse was the same guy who came to my office and stole my car. It's quite possible he "sold" my key to someone else. We had to re key our house and my office. (and buy not one but two new garage door openers! We replaced the first one after he stole it out of my car. Unfortunately when he stole the car, he got the NEW opener too!) They guy that used my card at the ATM was driving a newer black PU truck w/ nice wheels. He was a WHITE guy, in his late 20's or early 30's with very short light brown hair and a very receding hairline. He wore black rectangular glasses that had black rims. He was thin, fairly tall wearing a thick gold chain necklace, polo shirt (striped) with denim jacket w/ fur lining. Loose fitting denim jeans as well. I am hoping the police will pursue Verizon and find out the account info for the bill he paid that night. I've checked Craigslist and Ebay for my purse, but no luck yet. So, moral of the story, don't EVER leave anything in your car and don't turn your head for a second. It only took 15 minutes of my car just outside my garage for someone to open, steal and run.

[Julie]

Hi NAB,
Here I was thinking that only the condo's on the westside of Magnolia got hit by car thieves every other month. Our parking lot seems to be a favorite of these thieves and I wouldn't doubt if it's the same people over and over doing this. So, I know where you are coming from as far as this happening and being angered and frustrated by these acts. The only think I wanted to mention is that the following statement concern's me:

"The cops we talked to suggest that if you see someone who doesn't belong in the neightborhood - at any time of the day - call it in."

What does "someone who doesn't belong in the neightborhood " look like? Who "doesn't" belong in our neighborhood. That reads as racist to me. I realize this is something the cops said to you but I would be very cautious as to what we define that as.

As a community I would hope that we could band together to reduce these types of crimes without sacrificing basic human rights.

Just an observation.

[Cooper O.]

How do you know they're black?

[Marge Davis]

Car thefts increases nowadays. Sometimes you encounter them in the most unlikely places. I remember a friend who brought her car to an auto mechanic to be repaired. It almost got stolen. Luckily, one of the shop's staff, saw the goon and was able to save the car. When they checked if anything else was missing, they found out that some car parts like headlights, the side mirrors and the mass flow meter of the car. Though its expensive, she's still lucky she got her car.