Tag Archives: x-files

Washington State Patrol’s stolen car search sets off chopper concerns in the skies above Capitol Hill

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A lengthy helicopter search for a stolen 2004 Cadillac Escalade rattled nerves across Capitol Hill Wednesday night where memories of loud law enforcement and media helicopters and air surveillance during the 2020 protests are still fresh.

The Washington State Patrol tell CHS that a trooper received a “ping” from the vehicle’s LoJack anti-theft system around 7:30 PM Wednesday and the King County Sheriff was called in to assist from the air, setting off a 45-minute search.

The Guardian One chopper spun loops around the area assisting WSP’s attempts to pursue the vehicle below until after 8 PM.

During the search, social media posts from people wondering what was going on and speculating about the helicopter began to build as accounts from the state patrol, the sheriff, and SPD remained silent. Continue reading →

Google Street View has gone dark for parts of Capitol Hill

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Maybe it is testament to the area’s nightlife bonafides. Maybe it is a momentary glitch in massive scale tech. But for some reason, large stretches of Capitol Hill are being rendered in fuzzy, overexposed nighttime scenes in the Google Street View system.

It’s not an April Fools’ Day prank. The murky scenes appeared in December following an update to the neighborhood’s imagery. A Google spokesperson initially responded to our inquiry about the issue weeks ago but we haven’t heard back from her since.

In the December update, the system appears to be using a batch of photography shot at night — an unusual update for the popular Google feature. The result is a dark and fuzzy and sometimes unintentionally artful look at certain areas of Pike/Pine and the rest of the Hill. Continue reading →

Here’s why the Army says there were four Black Hawk helicopters over Capitol Hill

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Black Hawk Pilots with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division fly above JBLM during a training flight in January 2017 (Image: @16thCAB)

Thursday, just after 8 PM, a low flying squadron of military helicopters roared across Capitol Hill, shaking apartment buildings and rattling a few nerves along the way. Some counted up to four aircraft, flying low and fast and loud. Thanks to smart phone apps, a few identified the choppers as UH-60 Black Hawks.

No, the anarchist jurisdiction of Seattle hadn’t finally gone too far.

“We have 400 pilots and 150 craft to fly, sometimes over populated areas. Routine training,” Gary Dangerfield, Chief of External Communications for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, told CHS Friday morning. Continue reading →

Experts: Capitol Hill mystery soda machine disappearance ‘maybe’ time travel

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Or we live in the shittiest timeline.

Experts from Liminal Seattle, trackers of all things weird, wonderful, and paranormal across Capitol Hill and beyond, tell CHS they have been unable to determine exactly what caused the late June disappearance of the mystery soda machine from E John.

“Time Travel is always a possibility (as is sabotage by Timehunters— can’t trust those guys),” Liminal Seattle researcher Jeremy Puma tells CHS. “Portals have also been popping up in random places lately,” Puma reports. Continue reading →

Eyewitnesses: Capitol Hill’s mystery soda machine has disappeared — UPDATE

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Breaking news from just off Broadway: The Capitol Hill mystery soda machine is gone.

We’re checking in with area businesses including the Broadway Locksmith to see if they can shed any light on the apparent removal of the pop machine that has garnered global pop culture attention for its mysterious provenance. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Capitol Hill Mystery Coke Machine still mysteriously doling out mysterious mysteries at 75 cents a pop

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IMG_8426IMG_8433With reporting by Sebastian Garrett-Singh

It’s hard to say why these things happen but they do. The Capitol Hill Mystery Coke Machine is worthy of Internet headlines. Again.

The latest fizzy bubbles of viral interest, we think, were shaken up by this Huffington Post click-bait — The 1 Weirdest Thing You Never Knew About Your Home State posted on March 11th. What has followed has been a rapid regurgitation across the web — all the way to Vice’s predictable conclusion: SEATTLE HAS A HAUNTED SODA MACHINE.

It’s true. Located on E John in front of the Broadway Locksmith shop, the machine continues to dispense pop and mysteries in exchange for your three quarters. CHS found a Capitol Hill family happily visiting earlier this week after they read about the machine via Der Spiegel’s site. “Refreshment in Seattle,” Google Translate claims the story is headlined. “The mystery of the mysterious Coke machine.”

The mysterious mystery machine dates to at least 2002 when The Stranger’s David Schmader published the definitive examination of the important Capitol Hill landmark. If you hate things like Santa and the Easter Bunny, you’ll want to read Reddit Seattle’s take on the “mystery.” CHS believes in the Easter Bunny so we won’t ask questions about why the mystery soda machine gets its power courtesy the locksmith business. The locksmith also can’t explain the renewed interest in the machine that will soon stand in the shadow of the Capitol Hill Station light rail facility and apartment developments. “All of a sudden it took off,” an employee said.

You can find the Mystery Coke Machine at 918 E John — or check out its Facebook page for more (or less) information.IMG_8240