HILLTOP/FIR RIDGE- Package Theft

On Saturday morning, January 15th, a Neighborhood Watch Coordinator found two empty cardboard boxes on the shoulder in the vicinity of 10th Pl W and 198th Pl SW behind her house. One box had been an UPS delivery, the other, a FedEx. After running the tracking numbers, the coordinator discovered that both packageds had been delivered on Friday, January 14th.

The address on one box was in the vicinity of the 1300 block of 195th ST SW, a Canyon Ridge home. She took the empty box to the recipient. That home owner had been gone for only ½ hour that day from 3 to 3:30 P.M.

The other address was in the 200 block of 195th PL SW, which is a home in a new development. After four delivery tries of that empty box, she never met the owner but met a neighbor who said he actually saw a “little green car” drive up and take the box off the door step on Friday. This clearly was a missed opportunity to let the Sheriff's Office know about suspicious activity.

Note: While Christmas is a major time of the year for theft of delivered packages, this can happen any time of the year. Thieves may follow trucks as they make their deliveries or they may just troll neighborhoods for delivered packages on door steps.

As I noted in my posting for December 18, 2010, some things you can do to prevent becoming a victim include:


• Have a trusted stay at home neighbor hold your package for you until you come home

• When at home keep a watch for suspicious vehicles following UPS, FEDEX or Postal Service trucks. If you see a suspicious vehicle, call 911 and report the license number, vehicle description, and direction of travel.

UPS suggests:

• Have the shipper require a signature on delivery

• Have the package sent to your work where someone will be present to accept it.

FIR RIDGE- March Burglary Update

In March of this year I reported on a burglary in Fir Ridge where the burglar was interrupted by the homeowner. During the confrontation, the burglar shot the homeowner. The bullet hit the homeowner's Zippo lighter in his pants pocket. The homeowner was not injured. See http://ssnoccrimewatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/fir-ridge-homeowner-interrupts-burglary.html for details.

According to KCPQ-13 news, the burglar has recently been taken into custody. See http://www.q13fox.com/videobeta/b95ac3cb-5304-428c-babf-297500a27a4b/News/ZIPPO-LIGHTER-SHOOTING for the video of the homeowner's story.

Note: While the Sheriff's Office cannot always solve every burglary it does show that when it does have the evidence it will pursue criminals until they are caught. Congratulations to the detectives of the Sheriff's Office for their persistence.

FIR RIDGE- Homeowner Interrupts Burglary in Progress

On Saturday night, March 20th, around 9pm, a homeowner in Fir Ridge (vicinity of 10th Pl SW and 198th Pl SW), who was walking home, noticed a moving light in his house through the window. All of the lights were off in the house and no one was home. The homeowner walked around the front of his house and then around his fence to the side door that enters the garage. That’s where he apparently confronted the burglar. The burglar had entered the house from the unlocked side garage door.

The burglar had a very bright head light on so the homeowner could not see his face. The burglar started yelling obscenities at him and then the burglar shot the homeowner in the leg. Fortunately the bullet hit a Zippo lighter in the front pants pocket and lodged in the lighter’s metal case. The burglar yelled to the homeowner to “back off or he would get more of the same.”

When the homeowner realized he was not wounded, he kept shouting at the burglar, at which point the burglar took off running north on 10th PL to 198th PL SW. There appeared to be just one burglar.

The burglar had taken the flat screen TV off the wall. It appears that nothing else was taken or disturbed.

The neighbor next door heard the gun shot and the yelling, saw the burglar running north on 10th PL, and called 911.

A canine unit came out to the scene. It is not known if the burglar was caught.

Later that evening around 10:15pm a nearby homeowner came home and noticed that the sliding door was ajar, the deadbolt-type pin was popped out, and some computer equipment was misplaced. Also the sliding door in their bedroom was left wide open. Sheriff’s Deputies thought that they came home soon after the burglar entered, because nothing was stolen. They also suspect it was the same person who broke into the first home. Tracking dogs followed his trail for a while and ended on the street, where they think he drove away in a car.

Note: While this is the exception to the rule of thumb that in residential areas burglaries occur during the day and car prowls occur at night, there may be some indicators of why these burglaries occurred when they did. Remember, burglars, car prowlers and car thieves are opportunists, and they don’t like having people around when they do their deeds.

In the first house, no one was home and the lights were out, giving an indication that no one was home. Entry into the home was made easier with the side garage door unlocked.

When you are away from your home, leave a couple of lights on inside to give the impression that someone could be at home. Some people put some of their lights on timers to give the illusion that they are home. Turn on your front porch lights. Motion sensor lights above your garage doors can startle a car prowler or burglar. Use a “Charlie Bar” to prevent strangers from opening your sliding glass doors from the outside. And lock all of your doors, even if you are just going down the street!

Implementing these simple measures should help you from becoming a victim to any burglar, day or night.