SEATTLE — Fifty-six small business owners in northeast Seattle are coming together to urge Mayor Bruce Harrell to take urgent action to address a surge in break-ins that has left them feeling vulnerable.
"Please deploy additional police resources and otherwise restore public safety to our part of town... Please help our community," the letter states. It is signed by the owners and operators of businesses of all kinds -- restaurants, coffee shops, hair salons and more-- from the neighborhoods of Wedgwood, Bryant, Laurelhurst, View Ridge and Sand Point.
Their plea comes as one neighbor shares her heartbreaking story with the Seattle City Council.
Pamela Thomas lives just two blocks from the stretch of businesses on Northeast 35th Street that have been hit frequently by burglars in the last two years.
In an email to the council, she wrote, "There have been home break-ins too." It's a reality she has learned the hard way.
On the night of Nov. 5, 2024, Thomas returned home to find her bedroom window broken and her belongings ransacked.
“They broke the window... my bedroom was in disarray,” she recalls. “They managed to get the dowels out of the window I had put there for safety.” She said all her doors and windows were locked and that they had used a tool to break a hole in the glass of the window.
Thomas, who has lived in the Wedgwood home she shared with her late husband for four decades, is still grappling with grief. Fourteen years after her husband's passing, she plays the piano he gave her when she misses him most.
But ever since that November night, when she looks down at her fingers on the black and white keys, she is reminded of what's missing: an emerald and diamond ring he gave her for her 50th birthday. The ring was stolen by burglars that night, and she's been devastated about it ever since.
“It’s harder because it was something so meaningful," she said.
She said her late husband, Dick Thomas, even had the ring engraved with the words "Pam: 50. Love, Dick. 5/20/90."
“I didn’t expect to do this… sorry,” added Thomas, choking back tears. “We almost had 42 years together.”
When she misses him, she plays songs on the piano he gave her before he died.
Just two blocks south of Thomas' home, along 35th Avenue Northeast, a group of small business owners also feel the impacts of this concerning crime.
At Salon Divine, the cost of replacing a broken window totaled $3,000. Still, its owner, Loanne Pham, said she and other business owners often cannot file insurance claims due to high deductibles or a lack of coverage for repeated incidents.
“I don’t feel safe. I feel violated,” said the owner of Salon Divine. “It’s like my rights have been taken away.”
Salon Divine is one of 56 businesses in the area that have signed a letter to Mayor Harrell asking for help. The letter describes a dramatic rise in burglaries, with at least 25 businesses along 35th Avenue being victimized over the last two years. Some of them have been targeted multiple times.
"On any given day, there are several boarded-up storefronts along our 'main streets,' which creates an unwelcoming business environment," the letter states. "At least a few neighboring small businesses have closed as a result of the repeat burglaries and crime."
Meanwhile, Thomas, though shaken by the burglary, is thankful that she was not harmed. "They could have hurt me, you know, or worse,” she said.
Surrounded by angel figurines in her home, Thomas believes she has a guardian angel watching over her. “Yes, I do,” she said, pointing to the framed picture of her late husband nearby.