This e-mail we received from neighbor Wesley reminds us of other stories we’ve been told about stolen cars on the Hill.
This morning around 7:00AM, while riding the 43 to UW, I noticed a small, two door silver/gray pickup truck close to fence near the southwest corner [of Miller playfield]. It seemed out of place, it was really close to the fence. But I thought that maybe someone was on the field and decided to park in a really weird, close spot on the grass.
On my way home, the 43 gets stuck on a patch of ice on 24th around 6:15PM. I walk all the way up to 19th and Thomas. While walking by Miller, I see the same truck still in it’s odd parking spot near the fence. Weird. I call the Seattle Police non-emergency line. I tell them the situation. 15 minutes later an officer calls me back to tell me that it is a reported stolen vehicle and that the owner has been called to pick it up. Wow, and here I thought that someone was parked illegal. I’m glad that the person, who’s vehicle was stolen, gets it back.
Tracking them down isn’t really a policing priority. One friend’s car was stolen every few months. He’d find it parked in random places around his neighborhood. One time it even had a full tank of gas. One time he never found it.
When someone jacked our car from Wedgwood a few years back, it was missing for ~2 weeks before some good citizen called and said that a vehicle had been sitting in front of her house with all of the doors unlocked and one of the windows open for a suspiciously long time. Low and behold, our little white Camry came home to us because of this. Strangely, nothing but a bit of cash (3 one dollar bills) had been stolen from the car while all of our parking quarters (totaling $7) were left strewn across the floor.
Good for you for calling the police on this one.
My truck has been stolen on the hill twice in the past three years. Deja vu with the east precinct desk Sgt. “Are you sure its gone? Have you looked for it?” Yeah, yeah… Found once in the CD with a computer monitor in the back (still in use at my Dad’s) and again in the U-District, full of hypodermics and blood splatter. Not exactly a Craigslist ad… Good of you to call, it might’ve been “borrowed” again.
Did they just “call the owner” to go pick it up? That seems kind of funny to me.
OHAI THIS IS THE POLEEZ! UR STOLEN CAR IS AT THIS ADDRESS. KTHXBAI.
yes, they notified the owner to pick up their vehicle and if they didn’t it would be towed.