“I looked down, looked at the time, and I went to tell him the time and he had pulled a gun and put it in my face” describes Steve Kamphaus of the way his recent early morning robbery began.
A manager at the Thriftway on S.W. Morgan St., Kamphaus was heading into work to begin his shift at 7:13 a.m. when a black male teenager with a chubby face stopped him and asked the time. While looking down the teenager pulled a gun and demanded Kamphaus turn over his wallet, phone and car keys. A second teenager showed up to crowd around Kamphaus.
“At that point I think I was probably just in shock, disbelief, and I kind of said “no, I’m not giving you my keys” and that’s when the third one came up behind me.”
With three teenaged boys already surrounding him, two of the three in masks, two more masked teenagers came running across the street and lead Kamphaus back to his car parked on the corner on of 42 Ave. S.W. / S.W. Holly St.
Giving everything in his pockets over to the gang of thieves things quickly took a turn for the bizarre when they tried to start his vehicle which has a “push-start” ignition. Handing the gun off between each other the boys frantically took turns attempting to start the car.
“They were kind of yelling back and forth on how to start it, telling me they were going to shoot me if I didn’t tell them how to start the car.”
Once Kamphaus started the car for the gang of inept criminals they all piled into the car and tried to “peel out” only to get the tires and rims caught on the curb, stopping the car.
“At that point all my warning lights came on in the car and I think they thought they had broken the car, and they all jumped out.”
Bailing out of the car and running away the boys screamed threats to come back and kill Kamphaus if he went to the police.
“I just jumped in the car, drove back to the store and called the police,” he said.
Crime incidents see a spike recently
Kamphaus’s robbery is one of a recent string of more violent and aggressive robberies in the West Seattle area, even being mentioned in a recent message to the community by Southwest Precinct Captain Steve Wilske.
“We have had a total of 5 theft/strong arm robberies since January 15th, most targeting younger victims that range in age from 14 to 18. The items taken are personal electronics, either laptops, pads or cell phones. The two most recent happened along California Ave. S.W., with the others in the areas of 6500 42n S.W., 36th SW and Myrtle and 26 S.W. and Thistle,” wrote Wilske.
“Based on what we currently know about the incidents, there may be a connection between two of the cases. Several of the others appear to be stand-alone incidents that have not been repeated in the area.”
When speaking with an assistant in the Captain’s office she described the recent up tics as “cycles” explaining that the trends in violent robberies tend to spike every now and then. Citizens are advised to just keep vigilant.
According to data collected by neighborhoodscout.com the Seattle area currently holds a “crime index” rating of 4 out of 100 being deemed as 4% safer than other U.S. cities. According to the statistic gathering site citizens have a 1 in 172 chance of being a victim of a violent crime.
Captain Wilske confirmed over email that an arrest has been made in the robbery that occurred on California Ave. S.W.
As for Kamphaus’s case arrests may also be coming much sooner than later.
“As this was all going on I got to talking to one of them and he made some comments about how I had stopped him in the store and taken alcohol away from him. So, I asked him a few extra questions just to see if I could find out who he was. He said some stuff that totally lead me to exactly who he was. I was able to go back to the store here, go through our archives find exactly who they were and I found three of the five were on that video,” explains Kamphaus.
The footage has been handed over to investigating detectives.
When asked if he still felt safe in the neighborhood or if the robbery had changed his routine Kamphaus lightly chuckled and said “I’m still parking in the same spot, still driving the same car, still wearing the same coat.”
