It began on September 15, 2023. As far as we know.

The earliest report we’ve been able to find is this one from KOMO news, on 9/20/2023 referencing 5 similar incidents “within 15 minutes” of each other on the previous Friday.

Link to KOMO news article

The “We” that I refer to, is a group of parents who started comparing notes on a Friends of Ballard High School Meta (formerly Facebook) group page. We noticed a seemingly similar pattern of recent robberies of students, in a somewhat small geographic area around Ballard High School.

However, due to what we learned in the coming weeks and that I will now share, I hope you will soon agree that “We” should really include You.

I came upon this Meta group in mid October, after increased media coverage and an ensuing Seattle Police Department Blotter blog post named as many as 4 such robberies. Folks in the Meta group cried foul knowing that ourselves, we were aware of more than 4. “Wait, are we talking about the same kid who got beaten and robbed yesterday or were there really two!?” The awkward “we’re in a public space”, anonymity preserving comparison of notes began.

My trade includes a certain degree of data wonkiness. So my first instinct was to figure out a way we could compile and compare our data, in a way that kept the identities of those involved out of it. I set up a quick gmail address and asked everyone to pass it around, and share with me the details of each attack without victim identities. Just enough information to determine which incidents were indeed separate, figure out the scope and severity of these attacks in order to inform our families and begin some community advocacy.

We were all shocked to realize that with our data alone we had identified 17 incidents that occurred in just 5-6 weeks, admittedly self reported and unofficial. Many included violence, and the observed or implied presence of a gun. In one case, kids were abducted for a period of time (it seems about 15 minutes) and driven around in a stolen car in order to scare iPhone passwords out of one.

I should take a moment here to acknowledge that crime is happening all around us, that’s part of living in a city. Also, crime against students is not new. However the frequency and severity of these attacks did seem different, and was causing many kids to suddenly feel very unsafe in the space between school and home. In the midst of thinking, “someone should really do something”, it dawned on some of us that “someone” might have to be…

It was asked if we could map these incidents, so I did. I used google maps and produced a pretty clunky and inelegant, however demonstrative map. Parents made calls and emailed State Reps, City Councilmembers, SPS School Board members, Principals, SPD Representatives and just about anyone else we could think of. Patrols and the ever impressive Police RV (although of questionable utility in mostly single car lane passable streets), appeared in Ballard.

Soon, summary level and generalized information from Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Police department did follow.

WE DID IT! or did we?

As we made more noise and the SPD show of force in Ballard proceeded, we noticed incidents moving east and south, taper off and then they seemed to stop. We are now in a grateful yet uneasy state of wondering if this is happening elsewhere in Seattle and we simply don’t know it? Or is this just a temporary reprieve before the siren’s call of easy money from a 15 year old’s iPhone strikes again? Or was it the rain? It seems the best course of action now is to remain vigilant and be better prepared with what we learned as well as include the rest of the District.

So what did we learn, and why is this website here?

We learned that kids are easy targets. They are easily identifiable, tend to show up in a fairly predictable pattern (around schools, set release times) and are always carrying phones. They don’t have to be flashing them for attackers to know they have them. In most cases, the robbers used conversational ruses or just plain demanded the victims’ phones. Usually specifying iPhones.

This rendered the two of the instructions given to students rather useless. 1-Don’t flash your phones (duh they know you have one) and 2- Call 911 if you’ve been robbed. … 🤔 .. Families need another plan. The discussions need to be had that phones can be replaced, and what to do if you’re left phoneless.

It may be helpful to have a “safe place” plan if your student is rendered injured/robbed and scared. Thinking clearly is tough for anyone under those circumstances. If they are closer to the school than home, maybe return to the school for assistance? Are there trusted neighbors nearby to rely upon? Is there a public place with cameras, such as a gas station/police/fire station nearby to drive to if your student fears they are being followed?

Attackers almost always approached and took off in a (stolen) car. So what IS helpful - knowing the description of the stolen car being used. The attackers tend to steal a car- usually a Kia*** and use it for a few weeks until it’s time to switch it up. It’s nice to be able to tell your kids to watch out for “a white Kia”, or “a gray van or minivan” or at least be familiar with the pattern of cars, rather than just instruct them to be afraid of all cars resulting in a rather useless miasma of generalized fear that usually fatigues.

Knowing that they are mostly attacking in a pattern after school release (our attackers don’t like the AM) may help some families make different transportation choices. Also, if this spate of crime against students around schools were to crop up again, we could use location information to mobilize Block Watch and walking group communications.

This is where YOU come in. We have realized that we were not going to get actionable, timely information from our institutions. We need to crowdsource this for ourselves. We do not receive any information directly from Seattle Police, as their public facing crime reporting tools filter out crimes against minors. Seattle Public Schools has to date not been involved in direct parent/family communications about discrete incidents.

We will try to get posts up as quickly as we can (please remember we’re volunteers with no official capacity, we’ll do our best). We figure some information is better than none, and we can help each other in this space by sharing.

Your report may be the only way others in the community know that students are again being targeted. Having said that, please double check the map before you report to ensure you’re not reporting a duplicate incident. You can report if you’re not the victim or related to the victim. Anyone can report and we prefer not to know how you’re related or unrelated to the victim. We DEFINITELY don’t want any hunches even or direct knowledge of the identities of attackers. Please report that to law enforcement. We are not forwarding these reports anywhere, we have no official relationship or ties to any agencies.

Another lesson learned involved wondering where these robbers were selling these phones (and Airpods and in one instance, a MacBook)?

At least as far as the phones are concerned, I’ve been informed by SPD that there are contactless kiosks all over the city, where one can simply deposit a reset phone and receive as much as $500 cash.

NOTE YOUR IMEI/MEID and hardware serial numbers to report to law enforcement as they can work with these kiosks to flag your device as stolen.

***In case you’re wondering, “What’s up with the Kias?” If you have one, look up your model and think about a Club or hiding an AirTag in your car. Also check out this first article with some resources at the bottom for a software update.

First article on Vox about Kia and Hyundai thefts

Article on The Verge about Kia and Hyundai thefts

To conclude this first installment of the Seattle Parent Advocates blog (the what the heck just happened post), the combination of high relative values of iPhones, easy access to cash for phone kiosks, TikTok/social media driven trending of crime for clout seems to have resulted in a particular “sitting duck” situation for our kids at school release time that we all certainly hope will be gone for good.

In fact, I hope this is the one and only post here. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.