People expect the worst when a helicopter shines a spotlight near our homes at 2:40 AM. From @kevinseattle early this morning:

@jseattle any idea.? Woke us up RT @amykatehorn: What’s with the search-light chopper over E Pine? Seattle Crime is no help. Spooky.

We have gathered info that around that time this morning in the area there was one fight involving up to 20 people on Minor, another fight minutes later on Melrose involving six and, elsewhere, a dispute with a cab driver who drove off with a drunk guy’s cell phone that was supposed to be collateral. None of these incidents appear to have involved the King County Sheriff’s Guardian One helicopter, the aerial search vehicle shared across agencies and often spotted above Seattle crime hot spots.

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Photo: @hojeesum

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Meanwhile, there were other reports of the chopper around our area — and in other parts of Seattle. Below are some notes from people in Belltown who also were concerned by the chopper. In the Belltown area, the only police activity we can track down that would likely be related to a helicopter search is a Olive Way business burglary downtown (a street robbery in the area on Pine happened several hours earlier in the afternoon so that’s an unlikely candidate, too). But like the Capitol Hill/First Hill incidents, none of these seem likely to have produced a helicopter search and there was no mention of Guardian One in any police radio chatter.

So, what else could it be? Last summer, we had another helicopter mystery  that unfolded in similar if not exactly the same manner: reports of a mystery helicopter hovering above Capitol Hill buildings and reports of similar sightings from across Seattle. That helicopter turned out to be operated by a private company that was conducting tests using infrared photography to look for ‘air barriers’ around Seattle buildings. The company was called BCRA. We don’t know if this was BCRA again — last time, they operated on an extremely warm evening presumably making the leaking of cool air easier to spot — but if it was, it might be time for rules around better public notification of these types of flights. We’ll see what more we can learn as day breaks.