Burglars broke into a secured parking garage on Shilshole Ave. near Market St. last Tuesday night, and it wasn’t the only Ballard-area burglary over a busy few days for investigators.
“On Wednesday morning we found multiple cars had windows smashed with multiple items stolen such as bikes and computers,” wrote My Ballard reader Celeste in an email. “Our motorcycle sadly was also stolen.”
She said the burglars threw pieces of clothing over some of the security cameras — but missed the one above — and escaped in an old white pickup truck with a big red stripe painted on the hood. She asks if anyone has seen the truck, to please call police.
A night later on Wednesday (1/10), a burglar broke into the Shell convenience store at 8th and Market, stealing “about $5,000” in cigarettes, according to a police report. On the same night, a burglar threw a rock through a window in a business in the 8500 block of 15th Ave. NW in Crown Hill — which is likely the Walgreens — and stole some items out of a display case. There was also a non-residential burglary reported in the 2400 block of Market St.
A night later on Thursday (1/11), there was a report of a burglary in a business in the 6300 block of 15th Ave. NW.
Of course burglaries are not a new phenomenon in our neighborhood, but Seattle PD crime statistics show they’re on a slow, steady rise in Ballard. According to the latest available numbers, Ballard experienced 486 burglaries through November of last year compared to 476 in 2016, 464 in 2015 and 438 in 2014.
It’s all a good reminder to call police if you see any suspicious activity.
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
feral humans running rampant….
The subway on 46th and Leary was robbed at gunpoint tonight.
One thing to remember when interpreting these statistics is that they are appearing without a denominator. Even if the per capita or per business rate of crime were decreasing, the absolute rate might still increase. That is, the population of businesses and people are growing enough that it might be that we are actually safer per person/business than we were a few years ago.
@Ron Parks
Does Ballard seem safer than 10 yrs ago? Be honest. Feel free to keep up with the SPD police blotter/twitter/Seattle Crime Map if you think all this is just the result of increased density.
Besides, in a city this small, when neighborhoods become unsafe it affects us all – not like in a city of 8 million with boroughs stretching in every direction to act as buffers. Capitol Hill is a disgusting mess, SODO has blocks of felons in RVS, and Pioneer Square feels like the county jail in places. We need to be honest about the decline in public safety. Stop enabling the City Council’s lies.
Try calling the police sometime using the non-emergency line. The wait time can up upwards of an hour or more and officers may not get to you for hours more. Crime stats in Seattle are woefully inaccurate because many victims of so-called “non-violent” crimes simply don’t have the time to wait for hours to file a report or are treated like hysterical nimbys.
@ Ron Parks: Sad typical response. How long have you been here now? Lifers like me are tired of people coming here and comparing us to Chicago or NYC. Will it really have to take YOUR stuff stolen, or worse, to make the “you’s” of Seattle wake up? Legal heroin certainly brings out the best in all of us, doesn’t it. The tipping point is now in clear view. But 1st, we have to sink lower and adjust the bar some more.
” we are actually safer per person/business than we were a few years ago.”
Tell that to the 16 year old girl gang raped in Salmon Bay park last week.
Truck in photo is currently parked on 8th ave nw in front of the SCL Ballard substation.
Because crime has not impacted you does not mean it isn’t increasing. As a business owner of 10 years I will tell you that the problems are tenfold what they were 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. In the last month I’ve dealt with more stuff than in all my first 7 years together. It seems to be compounding at a very fast rate. I don’t know what else we are to expect given criminals seem to be allowed to do whatever they want.
And given that the police have their hands tied more and more crimes aren’t getting reported. I don’t have time to wait on hold for an hour to report a crime that I know won’t be followed up on by anyone.
Recker, did you report that to SPD?
I didn’t say crime wasn’t increasing, But again, simply having more crimes in the police blotter doesn’t mean that our individual risk for crime has increased. If the number of crimes stayed the same while population size increased than the individual risk per individual would be decreasing.
But yeah, go with your truthiness stomach feel argument instead if you like.