- ROBERT ULLMAN
As you might have heard, car break-ins are an increasing problem in Seattle. Data from the Seattle Police Department shows a 44 percent increase in “motor vehicle theft” since last year, and Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat recently reported that over a two-week period this fall, there were “426 smash-and-grabs” in the city. (That is, people busting out a car window to take what’s inside.) Westneat himself chronicled, in two recent columns, the smash-and-grab theft of a purse from of his own family’s car—which was followed by his own family’s hot pursuit of the thieves using a tracker feature on an iPhone that was in the purse, which was followed by his family’s struggle to get Seattle police to do more than yawn.
“This year we’ve definitely seen an uptick in auto thefts throughout the city,” said Seattle Police Department detective Drew Fowler, noting that detectives in auto theft and the Major Crimes Task Force (MCTF) have arrested several prolific thieves in recent months. “Our detectives are working really hard to catch the folks doing this,” he said. “We’ve made some headway and we’re going to keep at it”…