Police are investigating a massive Pike/Pine burglary that emptied a digital animation studio of more than $50,000 in equipment. The victims in the heist are hoping people in the area of Boylston and E Pine Wednesday night around 10:30p may have seen the perpetrators in the area over the two hours it is believed it took the thieves to strip the studio.
In addition to the equipment, a passport and business paperwork were also ripped off. In late May, a burglar made off with a safe stuffed with cash from an office in the same area. Meanwhile, earlier in May, nonprofit health organization Gay City also suffered a burglary of electronics and video equipment at their E Pike headquarters.
Details on the ripoff of artist Chris Rodgers and his MilkManMelvin studio from @sarakseattle are below. If you saw something, call East Precinct burglary detectives at (206) 684-5733.
My boyfriend Chris had his art studio broken into and burglarized on Wednesday night—to a tune of about $50,000 worth of stolen art equipment between him and the other Cap Hill artists that share the space at Pine and Boylston. These punks are out there somewhere, hawking stop motion animation cameras and laptops and hardrives and even markers and a respirator on eBay or at local Pawn shops. The thing is somebody out in the area at Linda’s or Mama Mia’s had to have seen them, because they spent at least 2 hours in there cleaning the place out, including drilling through the doors for at least 15 minutes with wood carvers in order to undo the dead bolts.
Thank god the cops were off protecting students from their constitutional rights or this might have been really bad!
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2012/06/20/spd-tangles-wit
About the fact that this all went down at the same time the police were bashing up some peaceful protesters because “they were in the street too long”. Common CHS Blog, report the real story here. Police would rather bust up a peaceful protest than catch real criminals. Bravo!
Let’s not be trolls, k, dears? Thanks
I live right here, and can’t believe I didn’t see anything. I DO remember hearing the sound of breaking glass and thinking “oh great, another car being broken into in the Seattle Central parking lot, Thanks, Seattle!”
So tired of the crime that’s rampant in this area, and I feel so bad for these guys, they’re unbelievably nice, and I see them every morning on my way to work.
@ F-A-I-L and Really?, learn about constitutional rights before you say more embarrassing things, and if you have the article cited right in the comments section, the least you could do is read it before you make some claims about bashing. You take all the power out of your protests and just sound like whiny bastards when you claim bashing and constitutional violation for almost nothing at all. Get out of the road if you don’t want to be arrested. Look at Oakland if you really want to see something to cry about.
The protest incident was over before this break in happened. The world doesn’t revolve around you.
So you heard breaking glass and didn’t investigate or call 911? You’re the reason these criminals get away with this. You could be the people in NYC who did nothing as a woman was assaulted in the streets. And yet, you complain about how bad crime is getting to be in your neighborhood. I suppose you expect someone else to do something about it? People have a good point about the protests, but the Police can’t be everywhere at all times. It takes citizens to put down their cup of coffee, get off of their iPhone, or whatever is distracting them, take a look out the window, and call the Police.
I’m with Jeff. We have a civic duty to look out for one another. What if that was your bldg/car/apt and no one bothered to investigate or look?
There were only a handful of police officers at that protest, out of many more that would have been available to respond to this burglary, if someone had called 911. It’s sad that someone hears glass being broken and just figures it’s “normal” for a city. It only takes a minute to call 911, and it’s better to err on the side of calling, even if you think the incident is a minor one.
The cops spent less than 30 minutes with the street protest, as I was there watching. They got the group to proceed down the sidewalk, and on their way and then most drove away. I must add that the protesters were noisy and ridiculous, banging pots and screaming “F*** the cops/pigs” over and over, seemingly begging for a confrontation. The cops just watched and made sure nothing more was about to happen. The group did disrupt anyone either trying to enjoy Broadway or go about life in their apts., as the noise could be heard from blocks away. Huge Fail, as no one knew why they were marching.
If you have that type of investment, why would you not invest the other $2,000 for digital surveillance equipment enabling you to monitor and record all activity and have the images automatically stored off-site in high definition.
I guess they are “high-tech” but not that high tech.
How rude. Instead of sympathizing and admitting that their situation is sad, you blame them for their own misfortune. I am sure they are kicking themselves at this point for NOT doing what you suggested and in hindsight seems obvious.
Way to just hit ’em when their down.
#captainobvious
As for blaming others for what they have no control over, that sucks, guys.
I’ve reported confrontations – stabbings even – and the police have told me it’s not worth their time. Yeah, in a perfect world, calling 911 helps, but it depends on who picks up the call.
You make a good point, and I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t think you understand the frequency that you hear breaking glass or something of that sort in this area. I’ve called the police plenty of times for things, but the breaking glass could just as easily be one of the drunk people in the area. Sincerely, I agree, and wish I’d done something about it, but I made the mistake of assuming that it was either something harmless or that somebody else would see it–a mistake I won’t make again.
The stuff that happens in this area is ridiculous–the other night a young man had his car broken into for the second time in a month in the parking lot, and spent the night screaming “fuck Seattle” and started breaking other people’s headlights on their cars. The police showed up in a bit, and there were other people on the parking lot with this guy, but I guess my point is that I’ve quickly become numb to the noises of the night–although obviously a woman screaming, etc, would be different.
I am curious about how the collective might be able to continue working? Is there a deficit between what was insured and what is outright lost that is blocking productivity? Are there plans for a benefit? Does the group need help arranging a benefit? Capitol hill has a lot of artists that would be devastated in a situation like this. I imagine enough of us can sympathize enough to help…
???