Woman witnesses terrifying home burglary from start to finish in West Seattle



SEATTLE -- A West Seattle woman says she witnessed a terrifying break in from start to finish.

“It was a panic -- it was a panic of what’s going to happen,” the witness said.

She requested we disguise her identity because she’s afraid of the brazen thieves.

“He started knocking and looking in the window recognized it wasn’t anybody who lived in the house we knew it was suspicious,” witness said.

She says a man and a woman in a black Chevy Impala parked across the street from her neighbor’s home on Sunday. At 11 a.m. she made her first 911 call.

“I said 'I am witnessing a burglary in progress at my neighbor’s house,' for me to be on the phone and watch the entire thing happening was very scary.'”

She says the thieves came prepared. The male suspect put on gloves and grabbed a duffel bag of tools to break into the home on California Ave SW.

“We could hear a bunch of commotion breaking in the door breaking a window breaking something to get in,” witness said.

The witness says after the man breaks in through the back of the house, he lets his female accomplice into the home through the front door. The whole time she's counting the minutes for the cops to show up.

“I was sure they were going to pull in and we were going to see them arrested and get good justice right there in the front yard,” witness said.

Seattle police say the first cop started to respond to the call 6 minutes after getting the alert from dispatchers at 11:03 a.m. The witness says the cops didn’t show up to the house during the 14 minute break in and is now frustrated police did not respond faster.

“I was mad I watched this whole thing happen,” witness said.

Police say they tracked down the suspects in the Impala nearby on 35th and Thistle within 15 minutes of getting the alert of the burglary. When the suspects refused to stop, officers called off their pursuit for safety reasons. Now the witness is worried the burglars will strike again.

“To watch them get away to know they got away knowing they are loose and know they got away this,” witness said.

Because it was a burglary in progress the incident was deemed a priority one call. SPD says on average their response times for priority one calls or violent crimes is 7 minutes.

Police say overall residential burglaries in the Southwest precinct is down by 7% compared to last year.