South Center Mall -Tukwila Car theft and break ins

[Hemlock140]

When did you place it under the seat, right before getting out? These people sit in the cars and watch people arrive and see if they hide things. You are pretty safe at South Center, it's your car and any contents that are not. We have no reason to go there any more, it's gone downhill a long way since the early 90s when we went frequently.

For us Bell Square and Northgate are closer, even the Super Mall in Auburn is not much farther and they have a lot less problems. At Bellevue Square you actually see security people patrolling the garage.

[poopskooper]

Lots of good advice on this thread.

However, I didn't catch that the OP was not actually IN the Southcenter Mall parking lot itself until I reread the post. So when many in this thread say, go to another mall to shop, although appreciated my me, it wasn't necessarily why the OP went to the location he did. He went to dine at Famous Dave's which is not in the mall itself. Whether the mall parking lot is as risky, I don't know but I have to guess it is. But if I lived in south King County and wanted some Famous Dave's BBQ, would I want to travel to Tacoma, Everett, Puyallup or Silverdale which are their other locations around the Seattle area? I'm not sure. But after reading this thread, I guess I'd have to drive the distance.

The reason I started reading this thread in the first place is that when I stay in the Yelm area, I may have need to visit a Fidelity Investments office and the closest one is on the perimeter of the Southcenter Mall parking lot. If and when I do go to that location, I was wondering where the safest place to park might be. I'm now thinking of maybe even driving further to another office location to avoid the Southcenter office.

Gee, a bad state of affairs.

[Inkpoe]

Honestly... I'd suggest going to the Fidelity Investment office in Southcenter anyway. Out of all the parking areas within the mall complex area, I would think Fidelity has the best spot to be safe. Its right out on the street and has the entrance that many patrons would use to enter/leave the mall complex parking spot and it's next to Bank of America. Which means it would be harder for the thieves to know if/when the police are coming around. (The police do come around.) Its also too open, more open than Famous Dave's. I'm not exactly sure where the OP parked, but its definitely not as busy as where Fidelity is.

Originally Posted by poopskooper

Lots of good advice on this thread.

However, I didn't catch that the OP was not actually IN the Southcenter Mall parking lot itself until I reread the post. So when many in this thread say, go to another mall to shop, although appreciated my me, it wasn't necessarily why the OP went to the location he did. He went to dine at Famous Dave's which is not in the mall itself. Whether the mall parking lot is as risky, I don't know but I have to guess it is. But if I lived in south King County and wanted some Famous Dave's BBQ, would I want to travel to Tacoma, Everett, Puyallup or Silverdale which are their other locations around the Seattle area? I'm not sure. But after reading this thread, I guess I'd have to drive the distance.

The reason I started reading this thread in the first place is that when I stay in the Yelm area, I may have need to visit a Fidelity Investments office and the closest one is on the perimeter of the Southcenter Mall parking lot. If and when I do go to that location, I was wondering where the safest place to park might be. I'm now thinking of maybe even driving further to another office location to avoid the Southcenter office.

Gee, a bad state of affairs.

[poopskooper]

Thanks, Inkpoe! That's good to hear. I just looked again at the location on Google satellite and I can see what you mean. Very helpful as I really didn't want to go all the way to Bellevue or Seattle from the Yelm area.

Yeah, Famous Dave's BBQ is quite a ways south of the Southcenter Mall itself in kind of a smaller strip-mall type of location. I guess it's just one big series of small strip malls that go from Strander to just about S,. 180th.

[CarawayDJ]

I didn't know they made security laminate for car windows. Good info. Looked online and they seem effective. Yeah, you still might need to replace a window, but at least the nut jobs didn't get anything.

[tstrizki]

I was at the Stanford resturant on 9-25-2013 and had my window broken in my rental car and my Computer Bag Stollen will all of my notes and everything. I felt that the Tukwila Police were very matter of fact about the breakin, almost like they were in on it. I found out later that this has happened in the past and the resturant had NO security cameras. I find that unbelieveable in this day given the low cost of cameras.

I think something is fishey. Because I am an out of towner and they new it was a rental car, I was targeted.

If anyone reads this post and had a similar experience, please contact me at [email]tom.strizki@novelis.com[/email]

[notoriouskelly]

Video surveillance now is Cheap!

No excuse for businesses not having extensive video coverage to at least be able to review what happened if it can't be monitored real time.

A mall or business of any size can have security, both overt and covert, to combat dirtbags lowering the quality of life of those who work for a living.
Even regular employees have down time where they can scout the furthest part of parking lots on in and report if there's suspicious people.

If I got broke into at a restaurant I'd likely never go there again; makes business sense to look out for your customers and employees.

And employees should never be allowed to tie up the closest parking spots anyway.

[Bimmerfanboy]

Sorry to hear about that. I live closer to Bellevue/Issaquah but I visit South Center every month of so. Never had an issue with crime in South Center but I'm definitely aware how frequent it is. The crowd that hangs out there is not the same you see at Bellevue Square. I've definitely seen more police presence than I used to.

Nevertheless I like the change of scenery from Bellevue sometimes. There's some decent restaurants around and the newer portion of the mall is pretty alright.

[Bimmerfanboy]

Originally Posted by Adrian71

Well, it's a major shopping area, so naturally thieves are going to be out looking for shiny new merchandise to rip off -- and with so many people always milling around, they can easily blend in and not draw attention to themselves. And with it being such a massive shopping district, it's going to be difficult if not impossible to have every square inch monitored.

I think that's true just about anywhere you have a big conglomeration of retail establishments, though. Back in Michigan, in a town about the size of Tukwila, I parked in front of a store and was inside for maybe five minutes. When I got back out, my car had been broken into, and the jewelry box I'd slid under the seat before going in (I'd just bought a necklace as a gift at another store) was gone. You just never know when someone is targeting you. It could seriously happen anywhere.

I'm out at Southcenter at least a few times a week, and I've never felt unsafe there. But I'm probably tempting fate because I almost always leave a couple of CDs on the dash. So this is certainly a good reminder to always be cautious, at the very least.

Where in Michigan are you from and which place did that theft incident happen to you?
I'm just curious since I used to live in the Rochester area.