Neighbors on Dibble near 65th woke up this weekend to find their car mirrors torn off and pieces of plastic and glass strewn down the street.
The driver-side mirrors on at least four cars, all in a row (above), were either smashed or knocked to pieces. One neighbor told us he heard glass breaking at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, and he suspected the mirrors were smashed by a baseball bat, swung from a passing car. (Thanks Ingrid for the tip!)
Vandals knock off car mirrors
I live in Greenwood and my driver-side mirror, along with a few other driver-side mirrors on our street were also smashed and destroyed on Saturday early morning around the same time. We heard a car drive by and then heard a few crashes. We ran outside but never saw the car. If you saw the car please post the make/model/plate and will keep an eye out.
Could we get a police patrol car to make its way through Ballard on varying routes every night? If not, why not?
audreyl
From what I understand, AudreyL, there aren't enough police to do regular patrols.
More money and manpower is needed. And it sounds like Nickels is planning to shunt all that onto the next mayor.
This crap is NO longer “the cost of living in a big city”. I'm tired of hearing that excuse. Imagine next time a baseball bat from a not-so-happy vehicle owner. What would those headlines read like? I can't wait to read it either way.
We heard them hooting and hollering, and a crash, and then a little further down the street, a crash and car alarm. Woke me from a dead sleep, so I didn't make it to the window to see anything. Stupid. 5 cars on our street, from my count, including my passenger side (yes, i was parked the wrong direction…thank god).
I'm shocked, SHOCKED to discover that gambling is going on here….
Why is this considered newsworthy? This kind of crap is the norm in this city nowadays (and many other places). Somebody is surprised at this?
nice to see people using their minds and doing something constructive.
This also happened early last Wednesday around 3am. 45th in Fremont – baseball bat from car, smashing windshields. I they hit 5-6 cars.
When I was in highschool they called it mailbox baseball, but it was mailboxes not car mirrors. Ahhh yes. Somebody needs to put that kid on a construction crew so he could do some demo. Come to think of it, I've got some concrete needing busting.
Bored teens have always done this stuff, it has nothing to do with the mayor or big cities. This kind of thing happened when I was growing up in (then) sleepy Kirkland in the 70s and 80s…all the cars on a street would have slashed tires, or broken mirrors, or broken antennas, etc.
No. The reason is that Seattle polices on the cheap. We have the absolute bare minimum of police to respond to calls and the ones we do have don't like working nights.
Call the precinct and ask them why they don't patrol.
I think they could make some real headway with the car prowl problem by having a few officers switch to the occasional night shift in some unmarked cars and a couple bikes.
Can't wait til they do $500 of damage to your car. Besides this is Ballard, if you think this is a 'city' you haven't seen much of the world.
Thank you for playing.
This sort of thing has nothing to do with city living. Country teens do this shit too.
Yup. Mayor, schmayor… Bored teenagers are often the culprit. Remember some stupid things I did back then, and have paid at least some of that karma myself-being a homeowner with a car, etc.
Teenagers are worse in the sticks sometimes; nothing to do, too much hormone flood, too much boredom, and not enough experience how to handle it all makes for some seriously stupid behavior once in a while. Ballard's got the skate bowl, and other things to occupy the younger set. Imagine if none of that were there-might be even more f-ed up crap-ola happening.
Funny thing is, I grew up in Manhattan and this kind of thing didn't happen there. Perhaps Ballard needs a Vera Project to give teens something to do in the evening.
Hey parents-ask your kids where they were during these times. Chances are the vandals are teens, chances are they still live with parents. Check your kids' cars and trucks for pieces of glass or scuffs on the passenger side door where someone would sit while swinging. The kid you save might be your own. It isn't just kids from disadvantaged poor families that do this stuff. Every once in a while someone catches vandals in the act. And every once in a while that person is seriously dangerous. And every once in a while kids end up with life long injuries for stupid stunts. I am tempted to go farther but will leave it at that.
That's because kids who live in Manhattan don't drive. They find other ways to get in trouble.
We all realize that kids will do stupid things and some of us even know this first hand as we've done some stupid things as kids too. This however, is property damage on a much larger scale.
The other issue here is that in most places you'd have a really good chance of getting caught. If not while you were doing it, the police would find out later. Seattle unfortunately doesn't work like that, and that's why so many people are frustrated by this seemingly increasing amount of bulls— crimes going unpunished.
I woke up the day after Labor Day to find the back left window of my car busted in near West Woodland School. Thankfully nothing seems to have been stolen but it cost me $180 to replace the window.
Yes parents, please talk to your teens. School just started and those kids are sniffing after each other, establishing their social cliques and yes, talking each other into doing some pretty crappy stunts.
I agree that this is not a big deal in the city. However it is a big deal in our neighborhood and this is a neighborhood blog. If this is not the kind of thing you want to be reading about stick to seattletimes.com or msn.com. The rest of us will keep an eye out for each other here in Ballard.
This happened to my work van in front of my place near 85th and 15th. The mirrors on my van aren't anything fancy, took about 20 dollars to get new ones, but it was pretty annoying. I don't demand more patrols of course, but I'm a bit more watchful when I see teens hanging around my van. Sure kids will be kids, but I use this van for my work, why do kids fun have to come at the expense of trying to pay my bills?
This happened to my car right around there, too…and a friends, and I called Seattle's non emergeny number. I got a sarcastic lady on the phone telling me that they were not going to even try to send someone out to patrol the area “not on a friday night.” I was really frustrated. I am planning on checking junk yards for a new mirror part.
This happened to my car right around there, too…and a friends, and I called Seattle's non emergeny number. I got a sarcastic lady on the phone telling me that they were not going to even try to send someone out to patrol the area “not on a friday night.” I was really frustrated. I am planning on checking junk yards for a new mirror part.
Late in reading this, but a few days ago on NW 17th and on 53rd NW I saw remnants of two side view mirrors on the ground…
That's my car in this photo! They did over $550 worth of damage. Did anyone get a license plate or any other information?