Truck stolen from Fred Meyer parking lot

A truck was stolen from a member of our community on Thursday night during a trip to Fred Meyer. The truck was taken from the Fred Meyer parking lot.

It is a black 1994 Nissan, license plater B61438S. There is an 80s "Magic Happens" sticker on the rear bumper.

If you see the truck please call 911. 

UPDATE:  The truck was found by Seattle Police in Wallingford, with "very little damage," said the owner. "A big thank you to everyone in the hood who was on the lookout. I appreciate your support."

How to keep Trick-or-Treating safe, fun

A trick-or-treater on NE 128th Street

Trick-or-Treating is a great time to get out, walk around your community, say hi to neighbors, and gather handfuls of treats for the little ones. It is also a good time to teach your kids some basic safety and remember some yourself.

Remember, most of our neighborhood does not have sidewalks, so some of the suggestions below should be emphasized even more in our community than in other neighborhoods with better infrastructure.

We encourage neighbors to get out and have some fun, but please keep these safety tips from the Seattle Police Department in mind when venturing out with your princesses and ghosts.

Happy Halloween!


Keep your child safe

SPD encourages safety and supervision during the annual Trick-or-Treat season. It is especially important for parents to adhere to a few safety rules for their children when they are trick-or-treating.

• Know your treaters' route

• Take a flashlight

• Be sure costumes, shoes, and treat bags are safe.

• Remind kids not to enter strangers' homes or cars.

• Set rules about not eating treats until kids get home. Be sure to inspect all treats before allowing kids to eat them.

• Candy that has been opened should be thrown away. Any homemade treats or fruit should be inspected closely.

• Remember drivers have a hard time seeing people, especially at dusk.

• Never cross the street from between parked cars.

• Watch open flames from jack-o-lanterns as they can catch costumes and long wigs on fire.

• Make sure that fake knives, swords, and guns are made from cardboard or other flexible materials to avoid accidental injury or worse, have them mistaken for the real thing!

Make your home safe


It is also important to ensure that your home is safe and accessible to trick-or-treaters. As adults there are some very simple things we can do to make the evening safe everyone.

• Turn on your porch light.

• Move lit jack-o-lanterns off the porch where kids get bunched up if they are trick-or-treating in groups.

• Remove objects from your yard that might present a hazard.

• Drive slowly all evening-you never know what creature may suddenly cross your path.

• Report any suspicious or criminal activity to the police.

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Wells Fargo bank on Lake City Way robbed

The bank on LCW and NE 130th Street (Google)

The Seattle Police Department responded to a robbery at the Wells Fargo Bank on Lake City Way Monday morning.

The department reported that shortly after 10 a.m. three men dressed in black walked into the bank. One of the men climbed on the counter and demanded money from the cash drawers.

The report said that none of the men flashed a weapon but witnesses reported seeing a gun tucked in one of the suspect's coats.

The suspects were seeing fleeing the scene in a red jeep. They ditched the car a few blocks away from the scene near NE 130th Street and Lake City Way.

The car was impounded by police. No other description of the suspects was available from Seattle Police.

Here is the original dispatch call for the burglary.

Four hours later, and just three blocks from the bank heist scene, Seattle Police responded to reports of an armed robbery. You can see the dispatch call for that incident here.

If you have any information about the incident please call 911.

New tool to monitor police dispatch calls for neighborhood, via Twitter

A sample of the feed from Sept. 27

UPDATE: The Twitter data we used here via the Seattle Police Department is now featured on the front page of the New York Times. You can read their take on how this will benefit Seattle neighborhoods here.

The City of Seattle has won a number of awards for the open data set it offers to residents. Information is usually easily available via our tech savvy city government —assuming one is also tech savvy.

Now the Seattle Police Department has launched a tool that uses Twitter to disseminate information about Seattle Police dispatch calls.

There is a bit of a delay but most of the calls we have seen posted to Twitter are within one hour of the initial 911 call.

From the Tweets by Beat website:

In order to protect crime victims, officers, and the integrity of investigations, calls will display one hour after a dispatcher sends the call to an officer. The feeds also do not include information about domestic violence calls, sexual assaults, and other certain types of crimes. 

Douglas Park Cooperative has taken the information coming from the Seattle Police Department dispatch and created a custom feed for our own neighborhood that will be featured on the right column of our website.

The feed featured on DPC is for Lincoln 1 sector, the area north of 125th and east of Interstate 5.

So next time you see flashing police lights down the street all you have to do is come to our homepage to figure out what is going on. Also on our right column is a link to monitor Seattle Fire Department dispatch and yet another link to listen to a live police and fire scanner for Seattle.

Feeds for other neighborhoods can easily be monitored by going to the Tweets by Beat website and searching for a feed by address.

PHOTOS: Douglas Park Cooperative Night Out Block Party

Neighborhood kids get to turn on the lights on Seattle Police Officer Kip Strong's patrol car at the Douglas Park Cooperative Night Out Block Party.

Our annual neighborhood Night Out Block Party was a success. About 100 neighbors came out over the course of the evening and spent time meeting their neighbors, enjoying some food, and appreciating their community. The street was decorated with sidewalk chalk art, people roasted marshmallow in the fire pit, and connections were made among neighbors.

We hope to do at least one more neighborhood gathering at Virgil Flaim Park so if you missed the Block Party you still have more chances to come out and meet neighbors. Just keep an eye out here on the blog, on our Facebook page or on on our email list serve* for details about future gatherings.

*To be added to the email list send a message to douglasparkcooperative@gmail.com

People gather around a fire at the Douglas Park Cooperative Night Out Block Party.

Food is grilled

Neighborhood kids have some fun

Grilling

Meeting neighbors

Many generations of neighbors came out for the celebration.

Fun on the teeter totter

Kids get to look in the back of Officer Strong's patrol car.

Sidewalk chalk art

Meeting a neighborhood dog

Discussing issues

Relaxing around the campfire

Thursday afternoon shooting puts Lake City problems in spotlight

Some of the problems our neighborhood regularly faces were put in a glaring spotlight on Thursday after a shooting outside of the 99-Cent Etc. store injured two people.

The location is a known gathering point where chronic public inebriates, drug dealers and others that exhibit nuisance behaviors regularly hang out. Judging from comments on news sites many people are uncomfortable going to the surrounding businesses because of the public inebriates and others that gather there. One commenter said "Much of Lake City appears to have become a north end ghetto."

The shooting happened next door to the Cedar Park Senior Housing Assistance Group apartments and across the street from the old Fire Station 39, a site the City of Seattle has proposed turning into housing for homeless families and low-income housing. Neighborhood groups, including Douglas Park Cooperative, are fighting the proposal as putting even more vulnerable people into an area already reeling from its addiction and violence problems —and an obvious lack of services that empower the community— would further encourage a vicious cycle.

Below is some of the coverage of the Thursday shooting. We have embedded videos where able and others are links to content on other sites.

KING5 coverage:



Q13 FOX coverage:


Here is a link to KIRO TV's story.

Here is a link to the Seattle P-I's story.

Here is the Seattle Times story. 

Here is info from the Seattle Police Department.

Nuisance behaviors in our neighborhood, visual proof

As Douglas Park Cooperative members do our twice-weekly walks we encounter many dangerous, disgusting and downright destructive things done by people in our community that either do not seem to have a stake in our community or do not have respect for our community —and often respect for themselves.

We have taken to documenting some of the things we encounter. These photos are a small sampling of some of the things we have seen in recent weeks. There are many, many more but we do not photo document everything. We also realize that taking pictures of chronic inebriates or drug users could lead to confrontation that we have deemed is wise to avoid.

Below is a sampling of what we regularly see. Keep in mind that we conduct two weekly litter patrols and folks at the UGM shelter also conduct one per week. Other neighborhood groups also conduct patrols and find similar things.

Likely one of the most disturbing was when we found at least four unsecured hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, a place that students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

The focus of DPC from day one has been nuisance behaviors, not the often troubled people that are known to do them. That responsibility is more in line with what the Seattle Police Department contributes to our mission. That is why we are pursuing the Alcohol Impact Area as a small part of the complicated puzzle that will better our community.

We potentially have a great neighborhood and DPC wants to help everyone succeed in reaching their potential and overcome their struggles. However, these nuisance behaviors and their results bring down everyone.

 

Needles outside Cedar Park senior apartments

One of the dozens of hypodermic needles found in the neighborhood

A collection of empties on the street

Scene after a stabbing at the 99¢ Etc. store

Shoplifting suspects captured by camera at ACE Hardware

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. is welcomed to the neighborhood

Graffiti in front of Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Another needle in a neighbor's hedge

Shopping cart full of trash and beer cans

More vandalism at the dead end of 28th Ave NE near Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Four Loko cans in Elliot Bay Brewing doorway

Bag used for drugs

Truck vandalized with pink paint stolen from shed at Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Loitering, drinking with about 6 empties at the Chevron gas station

Warning: After this point the images become quite offensive and disgusting. Continue at your own discretion.

Neighborhood home burglarized while occupied early today, suspect arrested

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About 5:30 a.m. this morning a woman in our neighborhood discovered a man in her house. She confronted him and he responded “I’m in the wrong house!” and left.

The woman called police and officers found the man about a block and a half from the residence.

As the suspect was being detained, officers found some of the victims property in the man's possession. She was later able to positively identify him as the man she saw in her house.

The 48 year old man was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary.  North Precinct Burglary detectives responded to the scene and processed the scene as part of their investigation.

This is another in a string of recent burglaries of North Seattle homes that are occupied at the time of the burglary. Recently officers arrested a teenager with a long history of crime in connection with some of the occupied burglaries.