CHS reported on a Monday cellphone street robbery that was unusual in many respects: The attacker was traveling by car, committed his crime in broad daylight and chose his victim on a busy street surrounded by many witnesses. CHS has learned of a Saturday phone grab that was much more text book: A victim walking by himself late at night, attacked from behind, his cell phone grabbed in an instant.

According to the Seattle Police Department report on the incident, the victim was walking east on Pine just past Madison late Saturday night when another man jumped him from behind and punched him in the face while grabbing his cell phone. The attacker then tried to grab the man’s wallet but he was able to fend the mugger off. The man told police he then yelled for assistance. The mugger then punched the man in the nose and again tried to take the wallet but again the man was able to fight the assailant off. At that point, the suspect ran away. According to the report, the victim walked home and called police. The victim told police he did not get a good look at his attacker because of the lack of streetlights in the area around the 1800 block of E. Pine. According to the report, the victim suffered cuts and bruises but declined medical aid.

While East Precinct officials have said they are making headway on curtailing street robbery including the recent charges brought against one group who police say committed a string of robberies across the Hill, reports of wallet, purse and phone grabs on and around the Hill continue to be a regular occurrence. Meg, a CHS commenter — and soon-to-be Capitol Hill resident — asked some good questions after Monday’s brazen phone grab:

I’m moving to the area and having read about a number of muggings on this blog, I’m wondering how safe local residents feel. Are these isolated incidents? Is this a new trend that you see developing? Or have these always been fairly regular occurrences?

We reported on recent trends that showed the uptick in street robberies through March here. Obviously, it’s time to update with April’s numbers. We’ll also look at street robbery trends over longer periods and give seasonal analysis a look. There are also some good anecdotal responses from CHS commenters to Meg’s inquiry. Meanwhile, there are factors like population density and comparative crime rates to other urban areas of the country to consider. Crime reporting is a tricky thing. It’s why you see so much of big media churn through salacious blotter item after salacious blotter item with a few high-level trend reports every now and then. Meanwhile, there’s a bunch of stuff in the middle that gets ignored. We’ll share what we find digging in around in that space soon.