Photo: QueensPost
March 10, 2012 By Christian Murray
The number of burglaries and robberies continues to rise throughout the 108th police precinct, and Sunnyside and Woodside are not being spared.
Last weekend, there were two break-ins on 47th Street (between Skillman Ave and 39th Ave). In one case, the burglar opened a ground-floor back window, while the family slept upstairs and fled with property, police said. The other incident took place a few doors down the street around the same time.
“We have had a bad 28 days,” said Captain Terry O’Toole, who spoke Thursday night at the United 40s Civic Association, referring to the 108 precinct that covers Sunnyside, Woodside, LIC and parts of Maspeth. There were 30 reported burglaries for the 28 days ending March 4, 2012, up from 15 for the same period in 2011. In addition, there were 16 reported robberies during that same period, up from 6 last year.
In the past 28 days, O’Toole said that burglaries had taken place in other areas in the neighborhood, such as 47th Street (by Queen’s Blvd) and another on 47th Street (by 47th Ave). There was another on 56th Street (by Roosevelt Ave); however, the police caught two teenagers breaking in to that property.
The majority of robberies continue to involve iPods, laptops and cell phones. For example, on Feb. 14 at 5:30 pm, a man held up a pedestrian at gunpoint and took off with a cell phone and cash. The incident came just weeks after a man attempted to hold up GameStop with a gun on Queens Blvd and 48th Street. There have not been any arrests in either of these cases.
O’Toole tried to assure people that this area is one where very few people have guns.
Meanwhile, in recent times, there have been several cases where car owners have had their wheels and rims stolen. At the 108th police precinct meeting on Feb. 28, Captain Donald Powers said that there had been 8 incidents where cars were discovered by their owners without wheels—sitting on blocks.
Two of those incidents took place in Sunnyside Gardens, two in Maspeth and the rest were scattered
Captain Donald Powers (NYPD)
throughout the precinct.
However, of the four, one occurred by Lou Lodati Playground on Skillman and 42nd Street.
Powers said that while the number is high, “it is not be by any means an epidemic.” He said cars are usually targeted in areas such as Bayside and College Point, which it’s a little more secluded.
The police has a borough wide unit that’s sole focus is on auto larceny (which includes stolen auto parts). The unit has yet to find the perpetrators.
In other matters, Capt. Powers said that there was a stabbing in Woodside on Feb. 19—resulting in 3 victims. He said that the incident occurred in the car, while several people were driving together through the neighbourhood. The victims got out of the car near the intersection of 39th Road and 52nd Street upon being injured. None of the parties have cooperated with police.
Meanwhile, the suspect who attempted to rob the Chase bank branch on Queens Blvd (47th Street) on Feb. 14 has yet to be apprehended. He is wanted for bank robberies throughout Queens.
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15 Comments
I’m a Hispanic, my parents came here legally in 1923 – you want OPEN
BORDERS well start checking out the price of window guards!!!!
neirborhood wach how does that work ?
i found my car vandalized the other night , they broke the passenger door glass to get inside, they stole some quarters, some cds and other items (none of these items were visible from outside) then they also broke the rearview mirror and part of the dashboard…i guess they got angry because they didnt get to much to steal… my car was parked on the north side of the BQE service road between 41st and 42nd sts after 11pm…the cops that arrived for the report were very kind and they admitted the crime spike in the area they said that they now have more regular and plain clothes cops watching…in the meantime i have started paying 100 bucks to a neighbor for a outside parking space!
A car parked on the north side of 47th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets had all four wheels stolen sometime between midnight and 6am on March 22nd, 2012. So the epidemic is not over!
I also heard about some punk kids finally being busted. Underage drinking will get them every time!
“Has yet to be apprehended” – in English, that means “never, mind”.
I too have seen kids lean into cars on Skillman to buy drugs. Where are the police?
Resident, I share your pain. The detectives always sound bored and sleepy – even when you give them tips. Colombo, they aren’t!
108th cops won’t do anything for you. They need to step it up or time to vote out the top brass and get someone who will do something. My home once got robbed in this area also and they tried to downplay it saying this is a great neighborhood and there are very few burglaries. Bottom line was it was an awful experience being robbed and an even more awful experience with the 108 cops.
For what it’s worth, I know a couple of our local hoodlums were busted for drunk and disorderly conduct (recently). Hope they get the rest of them. The quality of life will improve immediately!
Wait until summer when the kids are out from school – imagine the chaos. We know they don’t work – they dope, hang out and steal.
“We’ve had a bad few days.” No kidding! Imagine how the victims feel. I am tired of hearing about what a great ‘hood this is.
Here’s the way crimes are handled in one precinct:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-03-07/news/the-nypd-tapes-confirmed/
For more than two years, Adrian Schoolcraft secretly recorded every roll call at the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn and captured his superiors urging police officers to do two things in order to manipulate the “stats” that the department is under pressure to produce: Officers were told to arrest people who were doing little more than standing on the street, but they were also encouraged to disregard actual victims of serious crimes who wanted to file reports.
NYPD will downplay and increase in crime, and due to pressure from above will most likely pressure crime victims into not reporting the incident or down classifying it (for example, robbery is entered as ‘lost property’). This is going on in precincts around the city due to pressure from Bloomberg and Kelly to keep these numbers artificially low.
any word exactly where an armed robbery occurred in Sunnyside or Woodside? Clearly this happening at 5:30 pm should be a cause for major concern.
Anyone who is a crime victim must insist on filing a correct report and not having it downgraded. We must also push the NYPD for accountability as the crime numbers increase, and demand accuracy and truth in crime stats presented to the public.
That’s it, I’m starting a neighborhood watch.
Waiting for Chief Wiggum’s boys to do something is obviously not going to solve the problem.
Interested in joining me?
Contact- k2nyca@gmail.com