April Starts with a Flurry of Burglaries in SW Wedgwood

UPDATE 3:  According to the Seattle’s Police Reports Map, April closed with 8 forced-entry burglaries, 3 of which occurred near the intersection of 35th Ave NE and NE 80th Street between 4/11 and 4/17.  See the following table for location and dates for each burglary.

UPDATE 2: According to the Seattle Audubon Store on April 18, 2011, it was broken into for a 2nd time this month!  Additionally, we understand that 2 other businesses to the south of them were also affected.  However, at the time of writing, only 1 police report is on file at a commercial/office building on the 80XX block of 35th Ave NE along with another forced entry burglary that occurred at a residence.

UPDATE 1:  This post has been updated to reflect an updated narrative on the police report for the April 9th burglary, which occurred at the Seattle Audubon Store.

We’re only 18 days into the month of April and already there has been 5 confirmed (7 reported) forced-entry burglaries in Wedgwood, according to the Seattle Police’s crime map. This follows 3 burglaries in March, 4 in February, and 4 in January (18 so far in 2011).  These burglaries appear to be focused south of NE 85th Street and west of 35th Ave NE which also seems  a bit unusual.

Based on the crime reports, which don’t include specific addresses or names, this is what the burglaries entailed:

• April 1, 2011:  Burglary occurred on the 31XX block of NE 82nd Street between 8AM – 4PM through an unlocked back door.  Electronics were stolen.
• April 4, 2011:  Burglary occurred on the 30XX block of NE 75th Street (Eckstein Middle School) over the weekend.  A window into a class room was forced open, an additional window was smashed, graffiti was on a third window, and a computer system was stolen.
• April 9, 2011:  Burglary occurred on the 80XX block of 35th Ave NE (identified as a specialty store in the vicinity of the Seattle Audubon Store).  No narrative is included on this police report as of yet.  Interestingly, however, another forced entry was reported in the same general location (also identified as a specialty shop in the vicinity of the Seattle Audubon Store) on February 10, 2011 where entry occurred through a broken window but nothing appeared to have been stolen.  However, it is not known whether these two burglaries occurred at the same location (no addresses given) or if they’re connected.
  (According to the updated police report, the location of this robbery was the Seattle Audubon Store.  It appears that the store may have been targeted as a very expensive collection optics equipment (scopes, binoculars, telesocpic lenses, tripods) were largely the only thing stolen, along with a laptop.)
• April 16, 2011: Burglary occurred on the 80XX block of 35th Ave NE (identified as a commercial/office).  We understand that 2 businesses south of the Audubon were also affected.  Given the police reports description as ‘commercial/office’ we presume this police report refers to 1 of these 2 businesses.
  
• April 16, 2011: Burglary occurred on the 80XX block of 35th Ave NE at a “Drug Store/Dr’s Office/Hospital.”  No additional information is provided on the police report at this time.
• April 16, 2011: Burglary occurred on the 82XX block of 28th Ave NE at a residence.  No additional information is provided on the police report at this time.
• April 18, 2011: According to the Seattle Audubon Store, they were broken into again over the weekend.  No police report appears to have been submitted for this at the time of updating.

For your own security and the safety of your property, please remember to keep all your doors and windows locked.  Also, please keep your eyes open for any unusual activity in the area during the day and night.  For instance, thanks to really attentive neighbors in Maple Leaf during the day, a group of burglars were caught by police on March 30th.  It’s not known whether those caught were also responsible for any earlier Wedgwood burglaries, but the crime in Wedgwood clearly hasn’t stopped.

Stay safe!