Western Washington has seen a plague of crimes where criminals use stolen vehicles to smash into businesses and steal valuable items. Well now families are seeing a new twist in the smash-and-grab epidemic, where criminals ram their vehicles into garages in Seattle in order to get inside, neighbors told KIRO 7 News.One attempted break-in happened at a home in Montlake, located near Boyer Avenue East and 26th Avenue East, last Wednesday at about 10 a.m., the homeowner told KIRO 7 News.
“People can see them. If a car is running off the road and into the garage, people would have noticed that and heard it,” Klube said. “You expect something like that to happen at three in the morning maybe two in the morning. Not in broad daylight.”“Our garage is on that same busy road,” she said. “I felt shocked. This is a safe neighborhood. Usually, that stuff doesn’t happen. Especially the time of day at 10 a.m.
“It’s not just small businesses that need to ban together, it’s literally a community problem. Community everybody, who lives here, needs to ban together and come up with something,” she added. He said the vehicle smashed the garage gate, which left the condo’s garage gateless, leaving many families and their vehicles vulnerable.
“Somebody can just go in the garage, even if I’m home, they can just come in. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t call it my home,” he said.While the incident has left many people concerned about their home, a place they consider their sanctuary, Qazi said he is encouraging people to speak up if they see something to protect the entire community.“If everybody is quiet, nobody talks about it, it’s going to keep happening. Somebody has to speak up,” he said.