I'm happy about moving to Seattle but I have one concern... (Sammamish: crime rate, homes)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by hgfed27

I'm moving to Seattle in a month or two. Everything about Seattle seems great to me except that recently I stumbled upon something that gives me a little pause. When I found the crime statistics I was initially impressed with the violent crime rates for Seattle and it's surrounding cities as it seemed pretty safe overall. Then I saw the property crime rates... They're really high. I'm from LA and the Seattle area has 86% higher property crime. Now I'm worrying about this.

Can anyone from Seattle help put my mind at ease about this? I'd like to know how native Seattleites percieve the level of property crime/burglaries. Does it feel as bad as it looks on paper?

It depends on the part of town you're in. North of the U District, in Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Pinehurst, and parts of Roosevelt, also possibly Greenlake and Laurelhurst, there's no property crime I've ever heard of, and I've lived in some of those neighborhoods. I never even locked my door. Maybe you can find crime info that goes by neighborhood, for a more accurate assessment.

[BellevueNative]

West Bellevue has had an enormous problem with home and car break-ins over the last year or two. I'm talking some houses being broken into more than once, and whole blocks having been targeted. I know it has been driving the Bellevue PD NUTS. The people breaking in are looking for valuable items they can sell - likely for drug money.

Alarms do help. If anything, they scare the intruder and get them to hurry off. Without alarms, burglars are known to actually spend a long time in a house, going through everything. My mom's neighbor's house was recently broken into, and home cameras inside caught the guy spending nearly an hour inside. Cameras, but no alarm system.

Every once in a while, the burglars break into a house when the people are home. And those instances can turn violent. Look up recent incidents in North Bend, Issaquah and Woodinville. All of these ended up BAD for the burglar - Washington has a very high rate of gun ownership, so after breaking into numerous properties (most burglars are repeat offenders) it's only a matter of time until they break into the WRONG house.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It depends on the part of town you're in. North of the U District, in Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Pinehurst, and parts of Roosevelt, also possibly Greenlake and Laurelhurst, there's no property crime I've ever heard of, and I've lived in some of those neighborhoods. I never even locked my door. Maybe you can find crime info that goes by neighborhood, for a more accurate assessment.

I'm not sure when you moved away, but break-ins have gotten much worse over the past few years from what I've read/heard. Organized crime is involved in some cases, other times it's punks looking to cash in, and sometimes it's mixed-sex couples going door-to-door and looking to rob a homeowner blind.

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It depends on the part of town you're in. North of the U District, in Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Pinehurst, and parts of Roosevelt, also possibly Greenlake and Laurelhurst, there's no property crime I've ever heard of, and I've lived in some of those neighborhoods. I never even locked my door. Maybe you can find crime info that goes by neighborhood, for a more accurate assessment.

We lived in Wedgwood in 2011. While I was there I was a part of the NE Seattle Moms yahoo group with over 500 members. It covered Ravenna, Bryant, Wedgwood, View Ridge, Laural Hurst, Meadowbrook, etc.. The break-in at our rental was at the beginning of a rash of property crimes for the area. For a month there were 2-3 break-ins being reported daily on the group. It was terrible. The thieves were using the bus system to come up, they would fill up backpacks with game consoles, games, laptops, jewelry, etc.. and hop back on the bus... I was wondering if our house had been watched for awhile because it happened on my first day of training after being home for 5 months. They took a lot, but what was the worst loss was my half-broken laptop with all my kids' baby pictures. That was painful. Fortunately, my husband's laptop showed up 9 months later at a pawnshop and he had many of the pictures I missed the most.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom

We lived in Wedgwood in 2011. While I was there I was a part of the NE Seattle Moms yahoo group with over 500 members. It covered Ravenna, Bryant, Wedgwood, View Ridge, Laural Hurst, Meadowbrook, etc.. The break-in at our rental was at the beginning of a rash of property crimes for the area. For a month there were 2-3 break-ins being reported daily on the group. It was terrible. The thieves were using the bus system to come up, they would fill up backpacks with game consoles, games, laptops, jewelry, etc.. and hop back on the bus... I was wondering if our house had been watched for awhile because it happened on my first day of training after being home for 5 months. They took a lot, but what was the worst loss was my half-broken laptop with all my kids' baby pictures. That was painful. Fortunately, my husband's laptop showed up 9 months later at a pawnshop and he had many of the pictures I missed the most.

That sounds awful! And the previous post, too. Organized crime? WHY?! What's going on? I have friends who live in and around Maple Leaf, and they haven't mentioned any problems.

[PigeonCoup77]

After being here 2 years, and hearing story after story about break-ins, I'm really beginning to question my decision to move here...

I grew up in & around NYC, and no one I knew has ever had a break-in. Check the stats for NYC and nearly any of the suburbs surrounding it... Only the absolute worst areas there have burglary rates comparable to Seattle. And yes, if anyone had a break-in they would certainly report it.

A friend of mine who grew up in the south (but now lives in Seattle) is fond of saying: "If I wanted to worry about a druggie breaking into my house, I could have just stayed in Georgia - at least it's cheap!"

Remind me why we're all paying this much money to live like this?

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

That sounds awful! And the previous post, too. Organized crime? WHY?! What's going on? I have friends who live in and around Maple Leaf, and they haven't mentioned any problems.

We left the area 3 months after the incident and I left the yahoo group too, so I couldn't tell you if it was just the same 3-4 individuals or not, which were eventually caught nearby my house. Since they were using the transit system to get around, it seems that many of the homes were closer to bus stops. Also homes that had security systems (and were labeled as such) were broken into less often. Ours had an inactive system, but we were also literally on the bus line and had huge visibility issues. The neighbor next to us hadn't had a break-in in 10 years though.

[BellevueNative]

The problem has only crept up in the last five years or so. Growing up in Bellevue, I never worried. Now these people are driving up into the city from Kent, Tacoma, Seattle, etc. and just hopping on I-90 and I-405 when they're done. They sometimes go door to door through neighborhoods, ringing doorbells and knocking on doors until they find a house with no one home (or at least they think no one is home). That is why people are reporting solicitors or people coming to their doors - police will tell you that's how thieves make their approach these days.

There are a few reasons why this is happening in the places where it's happening, IMO:

- It's happening in nice neighborhoods, with better to do residents, because those houses have nice things inside.
- It's happening in quiet, safe neighborhoods because residents might be taking their environment for granted. Leaving doors unlocked, windows open in the summer time, etc.

The Bellevue police made two significant arrests last week of guys who said they were responsible for many home and car break-ins in west Bellevue and Enatai. In one of the cases they did not recover any of the items that had been stolen because the guy said he immediately sold or traded the items (probably for drug money) following the robberies. That guy said he was responsible for at least 25 break-ins in the Surrey Downs neighborhood. It will be interesting to see if the break-ins suddenly stop.

[hgfed27]

Wow, I'm kind of getting discouraged to move. The exact opposite reason I came to this board lol. This is unfortunate.

[hgfed27]

Does anybody have any good things to say about their experiences in Seattle? Anybody completely unaffected by property crime?