The people who work directly with our neighborhood in preventing crime could soon be out of a job. The six civilian crime prevention coordinators for the Seattle Police Department, including West Precinct and Magnolia coordinator Terrie Johnston, have been told they’ll lose their jobs next spring when grant money runs out.

The crime prevention coordinators work directly with residents doing everything from setting up block watches to going door to door to warn about recent crimes. They’ve been part of the police budget up until last October, when the positions then became paid for with federal grant money. That ends on March 31 of next year.

“We are the link between the community and the police department,” Terrie Johnston (pictured right) told us. “Patrol officers are often promoted or transfer out. We’re the ones in people’s living rooms and churches.”

Johnston and her fellow coordinators have logged hundreds of community meetings over the past year. She worries that officers and precinct bosses won’t be able to give residents one on one attention if the crime prevention coordinators are let go.

“When we’re gone, who will take the time?”

Councilmember Tim Burgess, who chairs the Public Safety and Education committee, tells us his office is closely tracking the issue as it heads toward the mayor and council. If you’d like to voice your opinions, here’s a link to the mayor and City Council.

Seattle Police responded to burglary alarms that were set off in multiple places inside the old Magnolia Elementary School on 28th Ave W.  On June 18 just after 5pm, several people apparently broke into the building by prying open the doors on the east side.  Since the building is vacant, no one is sure if anything of value was taken.  Several witnesses saw people walking toward the old school and leaving the area, but officers didn’t find any suspects.

A witness called police after seeing two people inside a rented commercial studio suite in the apartment/business building at 2015 West Dravus.  It happened around 12:30am on June 2.  The two burglars fled after being confronted by the building manager. The witness chased after the men and actually caught up with one of them, grabbing him by the shoulders.  The burglar then pulled out a buck knife and said “..look man, I don’t want to do this.”  The witness let him go and lost sight of the men.  It doesn’t appear the men were able to steal anything.

A black lab named Ben helped stop a burglary early this morning at a home in the 3000 block of 38th Ave West.  Magnolia Voice was the first to tell you about the burglary attempt earlier today. 

KING 5 led their 5pm newscast with the story tonight, interviewing the Armantrout family.  They told KING their dog started barking at two teenage burglars who were trying to pry open the back door.  The homeowner chased the teens on foot.  Seattle Police later caught both of them.  Investigators believe the suspects were involved in a series of break-ins and alarm calls early today.   Most of the calls came from an area on Queen Anne near McClure Middle School.  Photo courtesy of KING 5.

Our sister site Phinneywood.com broke a story today that soon had Seattle Police issuing a crime alert to other media.  We’ve learned three women in North Seattle have been attacked by a group of people carrying stun guns.  In each case, the group attacked and robbed the women as they arrived back home from the grocery store.  The first case happened May 17 in Fremont, followed by similar attacks on May 19 in Ballard and May 20 in Greenwood. 

The suspects are described as a black man in his mid 20’s with a slender build, a heavyset black woman in her 20’s, and an Asian woman.  In each case, they fled in a silver sedan.  That car, which turned out to be stolen, was later found abandoned.  The search for the attackers continues.  Police warn women to be aware of any suspicious activity in grocery store parking lots.

Only a few months after Magnolia Voice first broke the story, a Magnolia man accused of running a Ponzi scheme has been indicted by a federal grand jury.  55 year old James Liddell turned himself in to authorities this afternoon.  Magnolia Voice was there when he made his first appearance in court.

Liddell is charged with six counts of wire fraud after investors, including many of his neighbors in Magnolia, pumped more than $3 million dollars into his alleged business.  Prosecutors say Liddell claimed to be rehabilitating point of sale machines that he was selling to a large drug store chain.  Investors were told they would receive high rates of interest along with up to half of the profits from the sales of the machines.  But prosecutors say no machines were ever bought or sold to the drug store chain.

“It was literally the guy next door who bilked friends and neighbors,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan during a news conference this afternoon.  We’re told by prosecutors that Liddell deposited the checks of new investors into the accounts of old investors.

Liddell’s wife was originally charged by the State Department of Financial Institutions for allegedly taking part in the scheme, but she was not named in today’s federal indictment.  Prosecutors declined to say if they planned to push for federal charges against her in the future.  Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Liddell showed no emotion as a judge asked him if he understood the charges against him.  He’ll spend the next few days in custody while he awaits a detention hearing and arraignment on Thursday.

Read the full indictment here

The Shell gas station at 3317 W. Government Way has been hit by burglars twice in the last few weeks, including over the weekend, KIRO 7 reports.

In the surveillance video you see two people break a window to get into the store then steal what appears to be cigarettes. Once outside, one of the burglars drops his or her loot and scurries around to pick it up from the parking lot. Waseem Nasif tells KIRO 7 that other businesses in Magnolia have also been hit. “They’ve got to catch these kids, because I’ve been hit twice, neighbors got hit three times, some other businesses got hit twice, so there’s got to be an end for these sad stories,” Nasif says. He believes the burglars are teenagers because they appear to be amateurs, KIRO 7 reports.

According to Seattle Police, a Magnolia man arrived home on the 2300 block of West Raye Street around 2 p.m. yesterday and found the front door open and his place ransacked. Instead of going inside, he called police to investigate. Once the cops had determined the house was empty, the homeowner went to a nearby coffee shop to wait for them to finish processing the scene.

At the coffee shop, the man saw two males walking westbound on Dravus. One was carrying a backpack similar to the victim’s, the other carrying a camera similar to one that was just stolen. The suspects got on a Metro bus heading to Ballard and the victim followed at a safe distance, giving the police dispatcher updates along the way. The police converged in both marked and unmarked vehicles, arresting the suspects on the 2600 block of Market. The two have been booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary. (Thanks everyone for the tips!)

Here is information about the recent break ins in the Magnolia area from Terrie Johnston at the Seattle Police Department.  She says that extra patrols have been sent to the Magnolia area in hopes of finding these thieves.

There were two residential burglaries recently in Magnolia that are worth sharing with you and your neighbors. Both of the burglaries occurred through open and unlocked doors. The burglary on 29 Ave. W. occurred early in the day through the side door that had been left unlocked for the nanny. The house was ransacked and the suspects used a stolen gym bag and white garbage bags to carry away the stolen items which included a dozen Christmas gifts. A neighbor driving by saw the suspects carrying the sacks and gym bag, but did not call 911 to report anything suspicious.

The other burglary occurred on 32 Ave. W. during late night/early morning hours while the residents most likely were sleeping. The suspect(s) entered through an unlocked side door and took wallets, keys, phone, and Christmas gifts.

A review of the reported December residential burglaries showed nine in Magnolia.  All but three of the burglaries occurred during daytime hours (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) About half of the burglaries were forced entries and the other half were through open or unlocked doors, and no force was used. In several of the burglaries, the home had been ransacked by the intruders.  Side windows and basement windows were the most common points of entry, many smashed with a rock.

In a handful of the crimes, neighbors saw suspicious people or vehicles in neighbors’ driveways; back yards or alleyways nearby, but failed to call 9-1-1 to report suspicious activity. Please feel free to make a 9-1-1 call to report something suspicious. It is okay if you are wrong, simply trust your gut instincts. One of the purposes of Block Watch and knowing your neighbors is to gain a sense of what is normal for your street so you can be alerted when something out of the ordinary occurs.

The police department recommends that if your house is going to be empty during the day, keep your curtains or blinds closed in rooms where electronics or other valuables can be seen from the street. Many burglars report targeting homes where they’ve seen what they wanted from the street beforehand.   You can contact Johnston to schedule a Block Watch meeting, or to schedule a free home security survey.  Her office number at the West Precinct is 684-4741.

Just after 3 this morning, a man woke up after hearing voices inside his home in the 2900 Block of 25th Avenue West. As he began to look around, the suspects fled with several unwrapped Christmas gifts. When officers arrived, they scoured the area with a police dog up to West Dravus St., but they said they we’re unable to find the suspects. They did find, however, Christmas gifts dumped a few yards away. The homeowner was unable to get a good look at the suspects, but investigators say they were able to identify some evidence at the scene which they’ve provided to burglary detectives.

Fortunately, there were no injuries.

UPDATE 12/22:  The thief struck again this morning at 4a.m. when the intercom was once again pried open.  It appears the vandals have keys to disable elevators and they ransacked the garage and stole  multiple bicycles that were U-bolted or cabled behind locked gates. One homeowner heard a pickup truck idling in the driveway but was unable to see anyone or the license plate.  No word on whether any of the neighboring condo communities were affected.

The folks at the Blue Heron condominiums want to let people know about a thief who has been prying open intercoms at condominiums and gaining access into the buildings and garages.  They say that someone is breaking into cars and storage lockers and stealing delivered packages.

The vandals may have a key to Aegis intercom systems.  However, they also have pried open the intercom units and cut a wire from within the system’s circuit board then used that wire as a wedge in between the keypad panel and box frame to close it up so that residents don’t realize the intercom unit has been open, making it easy for them to return again in the future.  This has happened twice to our building within a month, latest being early this morning at 4:15AM.  We noticed our neighbor condo community has also become victim of this same issue early this morning as well.

The Blue Heron condos are located on W. Government Way near the north entrance to Discovery Park.

Magnolia Voice reader MJD posted information about a home burglary in the Interbay area in the forum and we wanted to share it in case anyone has any information.

Yesterday while we were at work, our house was broken into and many items were stolen: 10 electric guitars (mostly vintage), 52″ tv, tivo hd xl, cameras, ipods, white macbook and other items. Since the guitars were stolen without cases we’re hopeful that someone might have seen something.

A neighbor said that in the morning he did notice some strange trucks that said they were recycling trucks (with a generic name like “city recycling” or “western recycling”, but not the actual city recycling trucks). These trucks were large, with an approximately 20-foot red container on the back. The cab was big, but not as big as a typical highway tractor/trailer cab, and the entire vehicles were pretty beat up. These trucks were just hanging out about a block from our home. We’re not sure if they actually had anything to do with it, but it seems worth mentioning.  If anyone knows/saw anything, please reply to our post. Thanks!

We just got this information about an armed robbery in Magnolia early this morning from the Seattle Police log:

On 9/9/09 at 1:19 a.m., the 4 victims were sitting on a park bench in the 2600 block of Magnolia Blvd. W., when 3 black male suspects approached them and asked if they had any marijuana. The victims stated no and the suspects brought out handguns and robbed the victims. The suspects seemed to work as a team and searched the victims by patting them down to make sure that nothing was missed. The suspects took the victims’ property and fled on foot. The victims found someone nearby to call 911. A K-9 responded and a perimeter was set but the suspects were not located. One of the suspects that the victims did see had his face covered with a red bandana.

Just after 10 o’clock last night, police say a suspect assaulted a man in the 2200 block of Thorndyke Ave W. The victim and witnesses told officers that a man came up to their car asking for a cigarette. When they told the suspect they didn’t have one, the suspect pulled out a pipe and struck the man in the head. The victim and witnesses drove off and called 911. Medics treated him at the scene and his friends took him to the hospital for additional medical care. Officers searched the area but no suspect was found.