Edmonds Community Meeting On Burglaries Tonight

EDMONDS, WA - A series of daring daytime burglaries in the Chase Lake area has put the Edmonds Police Department and some residents on high alert. To help inform the community about what's going on and show them how they can help stop it, Edmonds police will host a community burglar meeting March 4.

Since early January, Edmonds officers have responded to nearly 20 separate incidents within the same eight-block radius — many occurring on the same day. The area affected generally falls between 216th Street Southwest (north) to 220th Street Southwest (south), and from 76th Avenue West (east) to 84th Avenue West (west), around Chase Lake School.

The brazen burglar (or burglars) tends to hit homes between 4 and 8 p.m., which is an atypical time for burglaries, according to Edmonds police spokesman Sgt. Shane Hawley.

"Burglars don't typically want to be caught, so they're not usually going to break in while someone is home," Hawley explained, noting overnight burglaries are more rare than folks might think. "We usually see break-ins happening between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., while people are at work or out shopping. Not in the afternoon when most folks are just getting home."

Case in point, Hawley said some of the reported incidents were actually interrupted by residents coming home and telling police "they heard someone or something scurrying out the backdoor."

The items stolen from the victims' homes is also unusual, Hawley said. Things like laptops, computers and TVs, which normally have high burglary rates, are being passed over exclusively for jewelry.

What's more, Hawley said he's surprised that not one of the 17 burglary victims' homes had security systems.

At the meeting, Hawley plans to explain why home security is so important, and how homeowners with cameras inside and outside their residences can help law enforcement crack these kinds of property crime cases.

"The whole area is on high alert, but people still seem hesitant to call," Hawley said. "We need people to trust their gut and just call; we'll come out. If it's nothing, it's nothing. But if it doesn't look right, it probably isn't."

On three days in January, when the burglaries seem to have began, police responded to 11 or 12 calls. When "snow-mageddon" hit in early February, Hawley said there was a noticeable lull in burglary activity.

But just this week, on Feb. 20, police were dispatched to three burglaries and two attempted burglaries in one hour — and all the incidents reported occurred within a block-and-a-half to two-block area, Hawley said.

"When we got the call, we sent out everyone we could," Hawley said. "After setting up containment and bringing out the K9s to track the suspect, we still came up blank."

All law enforcement got from one of the victims was a basic description of a white male suspect with short brown hair. But whether that individual — who was only suspected of trespassing — is the same person responsible for the burglaries is unknown, Hawley said.

"We're hoping someone in the neighborhood may have captured images of suspicious people or vehicles," Hawley said. "We'd really like to a get a picture of whoever is doing this."

The community burglary meeting, which incidentally was scheduled well before the string of burglaries began, will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. March 4 at the Edmonds City Council Chambers, located at 250 Fifth Ave. N.

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