Libby writes:
I wanted to let folks know that this past week during the day a couple of guys showed up in our neck of the woods (Woodlawn/39th) claiming to be from the city of Seattle. They entered backyards – without permission and without people being home – saying they were measuring all structures for a survey…including our huge oak tree! My husband was home and said they had no ID and seemed to be pretending to “measure” stuff. When he came out and started asking them questions, they left. I didn’t try to verify with the city, figuring it was bogus activity given that city workers would not be entering private property to measure chicken coops and trees.
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Last week there were two guys who came into our backyard from the alley, they claimed to be building chicken coups and wanted to look at ours. They were about 5 8-10 or so, white , mid late 30’s. This was up in tangletown. They were also taking pictures as they walked. About two weeks ago lady in her 50’s was walking up the alley taking pictures of homes. Don’t know if these people are casing homes, but there have been breakins in the tangletown area.
I am pretty sure the City does not walk into your property without your permission.
Or ID.
A person dressed in garb from Puget Sound Energy has twice this year walked onto my property and noodled around next to the meter. I called PSE after the first time and requested that they ring the doorbell to see if the resident is home and inform beforehand, and/or leave a note that they are coming onto the property to do work, specifying what they are doing. They said they’ll pass my comments onwards but never gave a committment to changing. This most recent time, I called PSE after seeing a man walking from the side of my house (who knows how long he was there!) across the garden beds (vs. the sidewalk) into a van marked with PSE’s logo. He drove off before I could talk with him. I called PSE to ask what he was doing here and in the end they said they didn’t know because no one called PSE to come out and they have no need to read meters as that’s done remotely, now. They started to say that PSE comes out when they are line problems and I asked why they would come to my house only and not the neighbors’. They dropped that angle after that. If people wish to call or write Seattle Public Utilities and PSE about their concerns and suggestions in this regard, maybe we can influence change.
Our neighbor’s house was broken into this week from the back door while they were out of town. It was unnerving considering that the person had to have been in their backyard and the back door is not visible from the street or very easy to quietly sneak up to. Thanks for posting so we can keep an extra-vigilant lookout.
Anyone call the police?
We had professional surveyors out on Thursday to survey our property – not sure if these were the two that were “poking” around in the area of 39th and Woodlawn, but as that is where we live, I am thinking it may have been… I will share with them the post. 🙂
I was just walking home this evening on 56th towards Tangletown when I noticed a man dressed officially (wearing a logo’d black jacket, bluetooth headset, and carrying one of those UPS/Fed Ex scanners) on a person’s porch acting strangely, like he was trying to be sneaky. The man noticed me watching him as I approached and began to walk down the steps. When I passed him, it looked like he may have had a box or other medium-sized object stuffed underneath his coat. I watched him as I continued walking and he acted hesitant. He got into a boxy silver car that looked like a Scion (the car had no official markings on it). I am not sure if this person was stealing packages from people’s steps, but his mannerisms did strike me as unusual. It was getting dark and I didn’t want any confrontation, so I did not go near to get his license plate number.
If anyone discovers that a package has been stolen from their step, I can probably narrow the house down to 4 or 5 possibilities.
If I had a package stolen from my Tangletown porch this evening, I would be very unhappy that you witnessed this and didn’t even get a license plate. Sorry, but people, posting in Wallyhood is not the beginning and end of crime prevention.
any chance of taking a photo with your cell phone?
Fruitbat, please have a more open mind. I am a 5′ tall female and the man I saw was over 6′ tall. He knew I was watching him, and I wasn’t going to go back and try to shoot a picture of his license plate with my crappy cell phone at dusk. I wasn’t even sure if I was reading the situation correctly and I was more concerned for my safety than a potential package.