Wheel Thieves Strike Again

By on November 10, 2011 10:53 am in Brooklyn Heights, crime

A Range Rover sits forlornly, bereft of left wheels and propped up on a partially collapsed plastic milk crate, on Pierrepont Place, between Montague and Pierrepont Streets, this morning. We don’t know if this is the work of the same crooks who, over the weekend, took the wheels from a Honda CR-V parked on Henry Street between Joralemon and State streets, as reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, also in this week’s Brooklyn Heights Press (p.5), but it’s the same modus operandi, down to the lug nuts neatly clustered on the pavement.

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  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    With the economy being in decline you can expect to see a lot more of this sort of crime.

  • Western Brooklyn

    If we actually had some police presence in the Heights, instead of a very occasional cop car passing through, things like this might not happen as often.

  • Sajh

    I am surprised there are not a lot more cameras watching the sidewalk and streets in BH. This block where this occurred unfortunately only has two townhome entrances on it. But if more cameras were watching the street at least you could ID a vehicle for the NYPD to BOLO for.

  • my2cents

    I wish I could watch these guys in action. I bet they are faster than an Indycar pit crew!

  • Gerry

    I think that this is NOT Pierrrpont Street but Pierrepont Place between Montague Street and Pierrepont Street and I bet that they are the same thieves who took the wheels off of the Honda.

  • Tclinton11201

    the one thing that could be done pretty fast besides the camera would be to simply light up the streets a little more, so dark in most of them it’s almost like putting up a sign telling all thieves come over we won’t bother you!

  • Hicks St Guy

    light up the streets more, more cameras, geesh, you’d think we were in a high-crime `hood. maybe you shouldn’t get out of bed.

  • GHB

    Gerry, it says it was on Pierrepont Place

  • Confused

    When I’m annoyed by loud noisy neighbors, I find myself walking down to pier 1 at night to below off some steam… and at 10:30 the heights is a total ghost town.

    The City should change the dull orange street lights, to a more vibrant white color. Years ago I remember them being a white/purplish color.

    Please remember to be alert and use some street smarts out there.
    If something or someone doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Confused, The dull orange color of the street lights is because they use high pressure sodium lamps (bulbs). They are higher efficiency than the older mercury vapor lamps that give off a blue-white light. Lams that give off a whiter light are much less efficient, thus would cost the city millions more in power consumption. Brighter lighting probably wouldn’t be much of a deterrent anyway.

  • Confused

    google those two terms and you’ll come across a study by the usda.gov … if those high pressure sodium lamps aren’t installed right they suck. People prefer the old white ones by 4 to 1 margin.

    granted the city can’t afford them or change them back, but maybe they should think of LEDS or alternatives.

    Bright light not a deterrent? can anyone say broken window theory!

  • WillowtownCop

    I see cars in the projects sometimes with boots on all four wheels to keep people from stealing their rims. Parked, by the way, in well lit parking lots where there are people around at all hours of the day and night.

    I think you can buy locks if you don’t want to go the boot route. It would at least take them long enough to possibly be noticed to get the wheels off, or make a nearby car a better target.

  • my2cents

    If you can afford a luxury car, you can afford to park it in a garage. Park on the street at your own risk….this is a city, after all.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Unfortunately the locking lug nuts are almost worthless as there is a readily available tool that removes them just as fast as as a regular nut.

  • stuart

    three words: anti-theft lug nuts.

  • BH’er

    Ummm, white light – orange light…. really not sure that made a difference in this caper. Someone jacked a pair of wheels off a Range Rover!! On a public street! They’ve got moxie!

    And I doubt the average RR owner knows the difference between a lug nut and a peanut – probably just wondering if the new RR arrived yet.

    Keep your eyes peeled! I’ll offer a $100 reward for anyone that posts information in this thread that leads to the arrest of this Hooligan Harry

  • EHinBH

    Um, this is in front of a doorman building. What the ??? Also, how could those ground-floor apartments not have heard this???

  • stuart

    Younger people are clueless they think Brooklyn is Toronto or suburban Seattle.
    This is Desperado-ville kiddies!
    Watch your asses -and your tires.

  • BH’er

    Btw: there is a street light Directly above the car and across the street shining light right down on the scene And scaffold lighting on the other side… if anything, the lighting helped them out – this is about as bright as it gets

    @EHinBH – lug nuts don’t make much noise and I’ll bet these guys were gone before a doorman would have made it to the curb, if there had been anything to hear

  • Teddy

    @stuart

    You’re right about that. The police seem to have higher priorities (drug busts & homicides, perhaps rightfully so) than keeping residents of the Heights/Cobble Hill and their property safe. Maybe more cameras and better lighting would help the situation.

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    I think this car appears to be on the side street and would not have been in view of the doorman.

  • Tclinton11201

    Bher check your facts, the light is either at the corner of Pierrepont Place and Pierrepont Street or at the corner of Pierrepont Place and Montague Street, none whatsoever in between.

  • GHB

    The entrance to the building is actually around the corner from where this incident took place. Is a doorman on duty 24 hours?

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    GHB,
    Even if a doorman was on duty they would not have seen what was happening around the corner.
    If the people who live in the building did not hear anything I doubt whether the doorman did either.

  • Monty

    @Eddy, crime rate nationwide is at it’s lowest levels since the 60s and continues to decrease.

  • Master Of Middagh

    To be honest, if I heard this going on and looked out my window to see the theft, my first thought would be: “Those dummies- what a time of night to be changing a tire. They must be in a hurry to leave. Yup, sure looks like they’re in a hurry.” And then I would turn away. Sometimes it’s hard to tell that a crime is even being committed to be confident enough in reporting it.

  • Gerry

    @ EH and Eddy, etc. the doorman is at 2 Montague Terrace a lazy bunch of guys who stay inside the vestibule until they see a resident walking in the door they rarely get up and walk out tto see what is going on on Pierrpont Place.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Monty, Yes you are right the overall crime rate is at around 1968 levels. However, I am predicting these types of small thefts will increase if the economy doesn’t start turning around soon. Hopefully, I’m wrong.

    I dont think it would make any difference if the doorman or anyone witnessed this event. It probably took about a minute. Even if someone called the cops, it would take them several minutes to arrive on the scene. By that time the thieves would be long gone.

  • BH’er

    @Tclinton11201 – go for a walk… seems your facts aren’t very factual!

    There is, in fact, a lamp at both of the corners, as well as a third mid-block street light at the edge of 2 Pierrepont Place where the building abuts the park.

    Judging from the photo, the mid-block light shines down right about where the rear bumper of the RR was parked. The scaffolding on The Breukelen has walkway lighting that includes a fixture in about the same place on the opposite side of the street, so I’d say these crooks could see very well what they were doing.

    A crime ring was busted earlier this year on the UWS for stealing at least 6 motorcycles. The MO was to pull up a van alongside where the bike was parked (blocking the view of passersby), slide open the door, a couple guys jump out, scoop up the bike in 10-15 seconds, and close the door as they drive away.

    This could easily be done for a set of unlocked RR wheels with little more than a trunk jack and a pair of power drills. Driver, jack-man, two wheel / lug nut guys with a power drill each.

    If they timed it right, a little helicopter noise or the SI Ferry horn would even drown out the sound of the drills – there’d be nothing to see or hear!

  • nabeguy

    I’m surprised that elmerfudd has not posted a comment about this. After all, it wheely, wheely stinks.

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