Shortly after 2:30 pm yesterday, a Rainier Valley neighbor was robbed of her laptop as she sat working inside a coffee shop in one of the south-end’s toniest neighborhood.
The victim, who declined to be identified, had been working on her laptop at Seward Park’s crowded Caffe Vita when a young man who’d been sitting near her for 20 minutes, reached over, grabbed her computer and ran out of the cafe.
Prior to snatching the laptop, she says the young man had been sitting with three friends and hanging out without ordering anything.
“Something didn’t sit right with me but I did nothing.”
Afterwards, all four suspects ran in different directions, probably in an effort to confuse all the witnesses.
“The guy with my laptop ran north and turned at the corner after the Pet Stop. I stood in the middle of the road and stopped cars driving by telling them what just happened and asked them to call 911 if they saw either guy running or getting into a car,” reported the victim. She added that two sets of witnesses saw the suspects getting into two different vehicles and were able to give plate numbers to police.”
The suspects were described as four young black men – one wearing an olive green jacket and another a black sweatshirt.
There are unconfirmed reports that a similar event took place at the Genesee Tully’s shortly before the Seward Park robbery.
We’ve inquired with Seattle Police Department (SPD) for additional information and will update this post as soon as we hear back.
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{ 31 comments }
Bold!
That’s really messed up because no one really has extra laptop money.
Scumbags.
We need to take back the neighborhood people, before it’s too late!
I’ve always been a proponent of a “Buy Something or Get the Ufck Out” policy.
It is appropriate to include a description of suspects in stories reporting crimes.
The email sent out on the neighborhood list described them as African American males .
This is third degree robbery, right? That’s a couple years, hopefully.
Good work getting the plates!
That’s such disgusting behavior. Good job on those witnesses for getting plate numbers!
David: how do we take back the neighborhood?
This problem is getting worse and worse – and the story is not new. There was even a gentleman mugged outside of Noah’s grocery. He returned home from vacation to buy milk for his young daughter and family. Because the milk was in a brown bag they thought he bought beer. The only way to impact change is to get involved. Right now it is the same 20-30 people attending meetings. We should all get involved in groups like the South Seattle Crime Prevention Council and hold the city administrators accountable for helping the south precinct address these problems. Last I heard they still didn’t have the officers they needed to do the job.
In addition to the accurate and relevant news of the Rainier Valley Post, when you google South Seattle Crime, a lot of stories about crime in south seattle come up in mainstream media as well……
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/399282_gangcop09.html
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_121708WAB_southeast_seattle_crime_SW.72413eef.html
http://sableverity.com/2008/08/14/south-seattle-murders-where-the-hell-is-the-mayor-now/
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/395353_crimestats09.html
I guess the message may be if you can’t rely on the city administration to protect the community; learn how to protect yourself. While arming yourself, does sound like a reasonable approach at this juncture, I don’t think that is the best solution. What needs to happen is more interaction with neighbors and the community……we need to figure out a way to look out for each our neighbors friends, families, and personal assets.
These types of crimes will soon have an impact on area businesses. If I can’t safely work on a laptop in a coffee shop, then my purse probably isn’t safe either.
There’s no easy solution for this. How do we change a sub-culture that sees crime as the only career option? There’s not much we can do as individuals other than demand for our various governments to put programs in place to help people rise above poverty, etc. A very tough job in these economic times to be sure.
“How do we change a sub-culture that sees crime as the only career option?”
I’m not sure it’s a sub-culture anymore, SolvayGirl. Haven’t we all learned over the last year that working hard, paying our taxes and being honest/legal is NOT the way to get ahead in this country? If crime and deception works so well for Wall Street, why not Main Street?
IOW, if we’re not willing to hold a bunch of powerful, old white men accountable, why should anyone be held accountable?
@Editor
AnarchistValleyPost?
Rhetorically, anyway.
Just trying to provoke discussion about how it’s all connected…
Selling and moving out of southeast Seattle isn’t the solution for everyone but it’s looking more and more attractive to many. As SSSLetter points out, we’ve been down this path before. And just as before, it was city policies and neglect by city leadership that allowed the problems to fester and become increasingly more serious.
We’re approaching a tipping point and the Mayor and 8/10th’s of the city council are oblivious. Sally Clark says, “When the trains begin running through the valley prosperity will follow” —-a modern-day version of ‘let them eat cake’. This sort of logic is preventing the city from taking meaningful action to address crime and other urgent issues in southeast Seattle.
Your voice is needed now more than ever. Attend the Southeast Seattle Crime Prevention Council. Attend your local community council. Lakewood-Seward Park is in a re-building phase. Get engaged in your community.
Organize, petition, and complain. Don’t email. Each member of the city council receives over 300 emails per day. Fax a letter that they’ll receive as a hard copy. A fax will stand out, an email will be lost.
Tell them the status quo is unnacceptable. Tell them you’re sick of the neglect, the double-standard, the rising crime, and the lack of support for business & economic development in southeast Seattle. Tell them 30 vacant storefronts on Rainier Avenue is unacceptable. Tell them that more low-income housing is not the solution, it’s the PROBLEM. Tell them to stop ignoring the existing Neighborhood Plans. Tell them the city’s pledge of “transparency” is bogus.
Finally, invite them to meet with you and your neighbors. Tell them that southeast Seattle citizens deserve their respect. Tell them that you’re listening and you want to hear their solutions for southeast Seattle. Tell them you want a reply to your letter.
Then call your friends and neighbors and provide them with a copy of your letter. Ask them to write their own letter. Silence is not an option.
I’m both encouraged and discouraged by this story/event. First, black youth were actually hanging out in a coffee shop, which I see as a good thing – unfortunately they weren’t there to order anything.
Second, other neighbors actually stepped up and tried to help the victim of a crime. They went out of their way to chase after running fugitives, get the license plate numbers, descriptions, call it in, etc. Thank you!!! That gives me hope that we are all pulling together.
Now for the discouraging thing, other than the obvious brazen theft. How old were these “young men”? Why weren’t they in school at what appears to be 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon? It doesn’t matter whether it was high school or community college or vocational school – do they really have no other option for moving up (or paying the rent) than brazen theft?
The biggest issue for me as a southeast resident is not density. For us, it’s opportunity (or the lack thereof). In particular, why aren’t we getting the same educational opportunities as the rest of the city? Or, to put it bluntly, why do the local public schools suck so bad? Why is South Seattle Community College in West Seattle? Why are UW planning students attending our neighborhood planning meetings in place of our residents? What does that say about us?
What is the fax number, phone or email to contact the people to make a difference? I think that South Seattle and LightRail would be an ideal spot to be a green tech hub. I want to work on solutions to reduce crime and create opportunities to make South Seattle a vibrant place. Who can I contact?
I’m confused…how is “low income” housing the problem?
Poverty has been rising in SE Seattle since the year 2000. Businesses have been closing and there is a measurable loss of jobs and income, according to the US Census Bureau “Quick Facts”. Poverty and crime go hand in hand. Before you get your panties in a twist go check it out for yourself. Southeast Seattle is terribly imbalanced with nearly 40% of the city’s Section 8 Vouchers concentrated in 98118. SHA has shifted housing from other neighborhoods into 98118, about a 19% increase recently. DSHS reports that, as of January 1, 2009, Southeast Seattle has 29% of all the foster homes in Seattle. Zip code 98118 has 61% more foster homes than the entire City of Bellevue. Southeast Seattle has 2000% more foster homes than Magnolia. Many crimes are committed by teens and young adults who are products of the juvenile justice system and the foster care system. In Southeast Seattle our most popular new business is a payday loan franchise. There are 30 vacant storefronts along Rainier Avenue. The first business to open at Mt Baker Station (light rail) is Pawn X-Change. Residential burglary skyrocketed 55% between 2005 – 2006. Crime stats shot up again in 2008. Long’s Drugs has been vacant going on three years. Why? Because our income demographics preclude making a profit here. Trader Joe’s has also turned thumbs down on SE Seattle. Over 12% of residents in SE Seattle are living below the poverty line. In West Seattle just over 4% of the population is living below the poverty line. SE Seattle is more densely populated than West Seattle and we have a larger population of youth, of elderly, and disabled. SE Seattle lacks middle-class and working-class residents when compared to every other Seattle neighborhood. SE Seattle is not a healthy community and the indicators are going in the wrong direction.
Balance is missing in southeast Seattle. Natural patterns of growth and development have been manipulated by decades of innept city leaders. The city continues to pursue an agenda that is turning SE Seattle into a permanent slum. Is it possible this is the first you’re learning of the correlation between poverty and higher crime? You may not like these facts, but they are facts just the same.
JE,
Read the following article – might answer your question.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime
Here’s a clip:
Studies show that recipients of Section8 vouchers have tended to choose moderately poor neighborhoods that were already on the decline, not low-poverty neighborhoods. One recent study publicized by HUD warned that policy makers should lower their expectations, because voucher recipients seemed not to be spreading out, as they had hoped, but clustering together. Galster theorizes that every neighborhood has its tipping point—a threshold well below a 40 percent poverty rate—beyond which crime explodes and other severe social problems set in. Pushing a greater number of neighborhoods past that tipping point is likely to produce more total crime. In 2003, the Brookings Institution published a list of the 15 cities where the number of high-poverty neighborhoods had declined the most. In recent years, most of those cities have also shown up as among the most violent in the U.S., according to FBI data.
Just want to share some good news – early yesterday morning, around 10am, SPD was monitoring Seward Park – not sure why but I can speculate it had to do with numerous car prowls in the area. Anyway, SPD was very proactive and observed an individual prowling cars. They let the suspect leave the parking lot and he was pulled over on Seward Park Avenue. When he was pulled over, he was found to be in possession of several stolen items.
As the recent victim of a crime, I’ve been working with multiple police agencies and insurance adjustors. In the vast majority of conversations the message has been the same……all parties are seeing significant increases in theft.
The question I can’t answer is how these anecdotes jive with The Mayor’s position that we are at 40 year lows on crime? Oh, that’s right, a recent Public Disclosure request I received already refuted the Mayor’s position, or at least it did for South Seattle.
The professionals all say to be aware of your surroundings and your neighborhood. I agree, it’s the best way to prevent a crime and it is the best way to solve a crime. My hat is off to those who stepped in and helped identify suspects at Vida. Hopefully all of the suspects were caught and they will share with their friends that robbing folks does not pay.
One last thing, I agree with the observations about South Seattle Schools suffering. The district needs to do a better job of educating the youth in our neighborhood…….and, yes, as parents we have a responsibility too. Hopefully more people will get involved with the PTA.
Some lines that caught my eye…
“Gold Coast Cafe” (???)
“Something didn’t sit right with me but I did nothing.”
“There was even a gentleman mugged outside of Noah’s grocery.”
“I’m both encouraged and discouraged by this story/event. First, black youth were actually hanging out in a coffee shop… “
On a good note, the Sheriff’s office seems to be having more of a presence in the Vally, particularly around the Alternative School at Rainier and Hudson.
I think I know those kids. Hopefully they get the kid that stole the computer instead of using this incident it to arrest the one they have wanted to arrest for awhile. I heard that is what the police were doing, trying get the kids to snitch on the one they want, and the first one to point the finger was surprise the one that stole the computer. I wonder if she knew who took her stuff because just because they all ran doesn’t mean they were all in on it could be but the one that stole it could have just done it and ran and everyone else ran. I have been with friends and they do something without telling you and you just run because you know you will be seen as the same even if you had no idea or you will be told to testify and that is very dangerous. Again I am not sure if it is the kids I know I will call them after school and yell at them to see.
Lou
Thank you. We need more Lou ’round here.
Sorry it was a different robbery that day by 4 young Black males Ipod. But I yelled at them anyway and told them when the police got them there is nothing I can do, that Ipod 25 bucks is not worth the charge. I told him to move out of his normal surroundings because if you didn’t do anything and the police are trying to pin stuff on him they will and he will go to jail. doubt it will work with him being a banger tends to limit your freedom of movement and he is one of the ones whom thinks he is smarter than he is.
This account was posted to the Columbia City Parents mailing list alias with the exact same wording on the quotations. We asked at the Genesee Tully’s and they said no such thing happened there. Was this reported first hand or second hand?
So glad you mentioned that – working on story about Tully’s story being false right now. Also, we confirmed story about Caffe Vita robbery with victim, witness and SPD before publishing.
Ahh, good to hear it. Thanks for the good work.
The Vida Story is real……but when I spoke to the barrista they said nobody from SPD had followed up which leads me to believe they must have suspects identified, right?
SSSL
I heard from a reliable source that they were told by a Tullys employee the day of the laptop theft that an hour before the incident, 4 black male teens were seen in the Tullys parking lot peering in a car of a Tullys employee, being destructive (i.e., ripping out the plants in the parking lot) and that where these these teens attend school may be known to a few of the Tullys employees
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