Two Three bits of crime news for you this afternoon.

Charges filed for half of the Maple Leaf Six (updated)

Of the six burglars caught in the Maple Leaf neighborhood last week, three have now been charged by King County prosecutors.

From the article by Maple Leaf Life posted today (“One adult, two juveniles charged in Maple Leaf burglary”):

“We filed on the driver of the car … and the two juveniles who were caught in the house,” said Ian Goodhew of the prosecutor’s office. The student and two other juveniles were outside in a car “and did not actively participate in the burglary,” Goodhew said, but are still being investigated.

The three other teens have not been charged yet.

Seattle Crime also has a piece up about the three charged teens (“Three charged for Maple Leaf break-in…”), which includes this rather disappointing section (the Maple Leaf Life post alludes to it as well):

Police initially believed that the three teens–and three other teens who were caught with them and have not yet been charged–may have been connected with nearly 20 burglaries in the North Seattle area. However, department sources tell us that now, detectives aren’t so sure, and that police are having trouble connecting the teens to the other burglaries.

Drat.

UPDATE (10:56 pm): Casey McNerthney, the Crime beat reporter at the Seattle P-I, has an article on the arrests as well. Read it here.

Those Security System Solicitor Guys

A Monica in the neighborhood was wondering about those door-to-door home security system selling guys.  One had been to her house lately, and I’ve heard from several others in the comments of other crime posts about these solicitors.

Here’s what our North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator, Diane Horswill, had to say about them:

Some years ago ADT became a franchised company so some of the franchisees use sub contractors to do certain jobs.  When a concerned citizen calls the main ADT office to ask about these door to door sales, the employees are unaware of the subs so they tell them there are no ADT employees out soliciting.  Now that burglary reports can be viewed online and there are many blogs and websites on neighborhood activity it is not hard to find the hot spots.  So it is likely that this is what is going on.  I strongly recommend that people do not make a decision about an alarm (or anything else) from a solicitor.