To the BHB:
This past Sunday morning my son and his roommates who live in a house near the corner of Beacon Avenue and Columbian Way were the victims of an attempted home invasion. Around 5 a.m. Sunday morning a car load of five Asian young men drove up to their house and began trying to break in their door and get in to the house. My son and his two roommates woke up and were alarmed by the noise, grabbed baseball bats to prepare for the worst. As the intruders banged on the door and broke a window, they called 911 and the police responded in five minutes. The car left before the police arrived, they were left shaken.
The police took their report and said they could only report it as a property damage crime. They were able to identify the car, but not the plates, and had descriptions of some of the intruders.
Today they went down to the police precinct to see if they could speak to a detective about the incident, but were told that there was no one there they could talk to, and that they was no way for them to take in the additional information they had. Basically they were told “tough luck.”
This is criminal to me. Things could have gone so much worse, and could have possibly ended in tragedy. Is there any one that they might be able to connect with on Beacon Hill that could help them? Someone in the Police Department? City? An attempted home invasion should not be taken lightly, but the police seem not to care. I’m at a loss as to who they can turn to for help. Any direction would be welcome since they love living on Beacon Hill, but are ready to move because they no longer feel safe.
—Matt Chan
For further discussions with the police I would recommend contacting Sergeant Ann Martin. She is part of the “South Precinct Community Police Team”, and recently spoke at the N Beacon Hill Council meeting.
Her contact info –
206 386 1393
ann.martin@seattle.gov
Please share any further information or action that come from your inquiry.
Thanks
You are right. It is criminal. A carload of criminals attempted a home invasion!
I and others in the community offer our condolences to your rattled nerves. Please do not misconstrue what follows as anything but constructive feedback. These are lessons I learned when we sustained an extensive residential burglary in August 2009.
Please keep in mind the Seattle Police is constrained by what the law empowers them to do. They do not have the resources to also act as grief counselor, personal body guard, and defense attorney. Identifying characteristics of the individuals and vehicle license plates are the best hope of tracking these hoodlums down. Unfortunately, dirt bags tend not to follow laws, so the police seem to have their hands full of cases like these. Without much else to go on, it is a difficult task for an already very difficult job. Home security monitoring, including private security responders, is great added security and worth considering. Good for them they were at least armed with baseball bats.
All that said, I truly do feel badly your son and his roommates had to endure this event. I know it is easy to get angry and frustrated, but please blame the soofflaws, not the police.
This has happened all to often to myself (house robbed and mugged) with the police ignoring my situation, which is my I have chossen to move this once wonderful neighborhood. The police are just as much to blame as the criminals. In my opinion, their chosen ignorance is criminal and only causes more suffrage to our residents and neighbors.