SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori: Your vehicle is safer in Tijuana than certain Seattle neighborhoods
Mar 31, 2016, 6:35 PM | Updated: Apr 1, 2016, 6:20 am
Car prowls in Seattle have shot up by 22 percent compared to last year. Dori Monson is already aiming his finger of blame. (Richard D. Oxley, MyNorthwest)
(Richard D. Oxley, MyNorthwest)
If you drive a car, there’s a chance you have some experience with car prowls. Just ask Jake Skorheim, producer for the Dori Monson Show.
Last summer he was up early one morning feeding his newborn son in the Green Lake neighborhood.
“I was looking out the front window of my house and I watched … and this suspicious looking guy is pacing the street. I later find out he’s the lookout,” Jake recalls. “And in the shadows were two guys moving like jungle cats, moving down the street quickly peering in the cars to see if there is anything valuable.”
“They would then break into the car,” he said. “After that another guy waiting down the road would come by with a trailer and load up the stuff.”
It was organized. But Jake wasn’t just watching. He was also calling 911 to report the crimes.
“I was on the phone with 911 for about eight minutes giving a play-by-play of it all,” Jake said. “And no one shows up. And this was in Green Lake, where I know you can find a cop in eight minutes.”
Parking a car can be a gamble. Dori recalls a time when he went to watch a game of Jai alai in Tiajuana. He parked in an area where cars often would be stripped where they stood. He was lucky that time. But many in Seattle are finding they are not so lucky.
“I now believe you have a better chance parking your car near the Jai alai spot in Tijuana than parking your car in certain neighborhoods in Seattle,” Dori said.
KUKOW reports that car prowls are up 22 percent so far in 2016, compared to the same time period in 2015. That amounts to 2,950 prowls in Seattle so far.
“And that’s the reported ones. You know that a lot of them aren’t reported to police. I bet the number is, at least, double that,” Dori speculated.
The crimes are mostly located in the Central and Capitol Hill areas of Seattle.
For Monson, the uptick in car prowls can be blamed on the city.
“It’s an epidemic,” he said. “Your experience (Jake) last summer just illustrates we have allowed a culture of criminality.”
