My Ballard

A man driving his Geo Prizm around a traffic circle at 67th St. and 1st Ave. was carjacked and robbed, reports PhinneyWood. Yikes. Also, neighbors there report a sudden increase in smash-and-grabs in the area.

Dozens of block parties recognized Seattle Night Out across Ballard Tuesday night to reinforce neighborhood crime awareness.

This block party on 9th Ave. near 70th St. featured hot dogs, a potluck and balloons for the kids (and adults, too).

A block away on 10th Ave., a band played from someone’s front yard. If you have a photo of your block party, please send it to us and we’ll post it here.

Adds Tom in comments: “Hey, that’s my old house in the photo…. The band is Kula Loach, long time Seattle band in the Grateful Dead mold.”

Update: Wayne sent us this photo of a block party on Sunset Hill.

“The picture is from the top of Engine 18 which came by and let the kids climb all over the truck,” he writes, adding that he’s especially fond of Engine 18 because they saved his house a couple years ago.

Kerry took this photo at the block party at 67th St. and 4th Ave. And Joe from the Sunset Hill Community Association sent us these photos below of their adventures handing out ice cream bars at several block parties…



Thanks everyone for the photos!

If you’re like us, you may have received an invitation to join your own block’s “Night Out” party this Tuesday night — an annual event to raise awareness for neighborhood crime prevention efforts. It’s also a great way to meet and mingle with your neighbors. The event runs from 6-9 p.m., and organizers are allowed to shut down their streets (as long as they’re not arterials and they don’t block the intersections.) You can also participate by turning on your porch light.

Update: The Ballard Community Center is hosting a big “Night Out” party.

Another update: Members of the Sunset Hill Community Association will be riding bikes around and handing out about 400 ice cream sandwiches. Yum!

Last night around 7 p.m., quite a few police cars responded to Market St. near 17th Ave. Explains a My Ballard reader:

“There was big drama at the little store… next to the Old Pequilar tonight. Some drunk idiot was refused a beer sale because he was obviously drunk, he then blew up, bullied the owner out with threats of violence and started tearing up the place. Cops took him out well maced and in cuffs. Check the police logs for details. All ended well but I feel so bad for the family that owns this store.”

Earlier this month, a man dressed in camouflage walked into M&S Grocery and Deli, called the clerk a terrorist and proceeded to hit him over the head with a can of beer, police say. The judge released him on his own recognizance, and he has since skipped his arraignment. Now there’s a warrant out for his arrest. The clerk, meanwhile, has moved to California after he saw the man two days after the assault a block away from the store. Prosecutors say this is the first case this year of a hate crime involving someone of Middle Eastern decent.

Writes bscowler today in the My Ballard forum:

“As a six year Ballard resident it’s disheartening to see blatant drug deals going down in broad daylight in front of my apartment building. I live on 17th Ave south of Market Street, and over the past two years I’ve witnessed countless drug transactions occuring on and around the streets where I live. I’ve called the police on several occasions, but by the time they arrive the dealer and customers are long gone. I’ve even taken to writing down the license plate numbers of the cars involved and submitting them to the narcotics unit of the SPD, but all they can do is add the information to their database. Has anyone else noticed an increase in drug dealing in their neighborhoods since Ballard has become the Friday and Saturday night hot-spot?”

Last week in the 1500 block of NW 58th St., a woman opened a shade in her apartment and discovered a man naked from the waste down, fondling himself. She screamed “for about 20 seconds,” but the man just looked at her. Finally, he took his mountain bike and left. Police say it could be the same man who fondled himself earlier this month in a cafe on Queen Anne.

“Cma319″ just posted an item in the forum that says someone stole roses out of their Phinney Ridge garden, hacking up the bushes in the process. And it’s not the first time. “Last year a woman cut quite a few roses from gardens on our block,” Cma319 writes. “One of our neighbors finally caught her with her car full of roses, got the license #, but never heard anything from the cops after he called it in.” Anyone else having any trouble with flower thieves?

Adds Milo in comments: “Yes, last summer we watched a woman pull up in a Mercedes and help herself to a few of our roses in the front yard. She even waved back at us when she saw us watching from the window… but she knew she was busted. All we ask in return for swiping our roses is that you give an hour or so of weeding in return (per rose that is.)”

On Thursday, we posted the story about a hit and run involving a child in a stroller at McDonald’s on Market Street. Now KOMO TV has covered the story with some more details. Fortunately, the 9-month-old girl is OK — just scrapes and bruises. It all started when the mom, Jennifer Pisano, was pushing Sofia in a stroller across the street in front of the McDonald’s when a white Honda CRX nearly hit her. The young driver pulled in the McDonald’s drive-thru, and Pisano said she walked up and confronted him, saw an open beer can and threatened call 911. That’s when he jammed the car into gear. “I saw the stroller being pushed under the car for maybe 10 feet, then under the tires. Heard the plastic crunching,” a witness told KOMO. Luckily, the stroller only partially collapsed, and Sofia was saved. Amazing. Police have a partial license plate, and they’re still searching for the suspect.

This story will make any parent’s blood boil. Just after 5 p.m. yesterday, police say a car hit a child in a stroller in the McDonald’s parking lot on 14th Ave. and Market St. One witness tells My Ballard that he heard the suspect’s tires squeal while racing from the scene. The kid “was bleeding and scraped up and the mom was hysterical,” says our tipster, but the child appeared not to be seriously injured. (There’s no official word on the child’s condition). Police tried to locate the white 1990 Honda, but came up empty-handed. It was last seen headed northbound on 14th. (Thanks David and Mark for the tip.)

Tim says a thief smashed a window in his car parked in Ballard and made off with his tan briefcase. The contents? School homework assignments and three books from the library. “I think the people that stole this from me probably don’t want this, they might dump it somewhere. Please let me know if you find it,” he writes in his Craigslist posting.

Early last Friday morning, a rather sophisticated thief hit the Wingmasters on 24th Ave. According to the police report, the suspect partially unscrewed the 7 flourescent lights outside to turn them off, broke a window, pulled the alarm control off the wall and disconnected two of the four cameras. The remaining cameras caught the suspect on tape, but he was wearing a hood and a bandana over his face, leaving just his eyes visible. He found the keys to the pulltab machines and emptied two of them, but didn’t touch the third. The suspect also pried open the ATM and pulled out an undisclosed amount of cash. While the suspect didn’t leave any prints inside the restaurant, he did make one mistake — police investigators were able to lift some prints from the light bulbs outside.