Five Daytime Burglaries in Brooklyn Heights in Last Four Days

By on March 9, 2011 10:22 pm in Brooklyn Heights, crime, News

Judy Stanton, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, tells us that the 84th Precinct has advised her of five burglaries in the Heights in the past four days, all taking place during daytime. Three were in the same building, on Willow Street between Cranberry and Orange; one was on Remsen Street between Clinton and Henry; and one was on Columbia Place. All were from dwellings that had been left unlocked. More of Judy’s message after the jump.

It is lovely that Heights residents are feeling so safe that they leave their doors unlocked, but it is awful to be burglarized……..and it is very, very frustrating to the police.

Deputy Inspector DiPaolo has reached out to the BHA to get the word out to all of you,in the hope of preventing more of these ‘walk right in’ burglaries. Please forward this to your neighbors, and PLEASE BE SURE TO LOCK YOUR DOORS. Thank you!

Update: The Times “City Room” blog weighs in, quoting Judy Stanton as saying that one of the “feared” burglaries, evidently one of the three in the same Willow Street building, “turned out to be a messy apartment.”

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  • Teddy

    Those old Midwestern habits can be hard to break for some people. Sometimes it takes a hard New York lesson to wake some people up from their suburban slumber. I grew up here so locking my door is as natural for me as breathing.

  • A

    ^ wow, you’re a douchebag.

    no one is ever impressed with an ‘i grew up here so i know better than everyone else attitude’ – you just end up getting the rest of the nice people who grew up here lumped into a stereotype that we are all a bunch of judgmental, tools like yourself.

  • Teddy

    Calm down. I wasn’t trying to be offensive here and if anyone did find it offensive given their own personal background/sensitivity, I’m sorry. The point is it’s unusual for 5 burglaries to occur in such a short period of time which share this one common and may I say unusual denominator, at least from the perspective of a person who grew up here. Sure, people can forget to lock their doors, it can happen. It’s just a little unusual what happened here. So like I said, calm down and let’s keep this polite. I can’t say more than that.

  • Demonter

    It’s naive to keep your home, automobile or gym locker doors unlocked anywhere in the USA today. A little caution goes a long way concerning crime avoidance since perps always seek out the easiest targets. Nothing is 100% guaranteed but your odds improve with some foresight and “street smarts”. Be aware and stay alert.

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, having grown up around Detroit – the midwest – I’ll tell you that no one there left there doors unlocked even for a few minutes. With these, it’s pretty brazen that they take place during the day when you think that there are a lot of people out and about in the neighborhood.

  • Arch Stanton

    @ Jorale-man, when do you think such burglaries usually occur, at night when people are home? Do you think the people perpetrating these crimes are obvious to anyone walking by?

  • AnnOfOrange

    Willow between Orange and Cranberry? Is that the same building that had several robberies a couple of years ago?

  • ABC

    as a city dweller, when there are robberies of expensive watches (with estimates higher than resale value in a down market) with no evidence of a break-in, I suspect insurance fraud.

    to me, teddy sounds like a provincial tool/fool. but I’m not trying to be offensive so I hope you don’t find it so due to your personal background/sensitivity, etc.

  • David on Middagh

    My genuine condolences go to the crime victims. (I’ll let the insurance companies determine when they’re being defrauded.) Doesn’t thievery, and the threat of it, put such a damper on the enjoyment of an outing?

    Lock your car,
    secure your bike,
    don’t let your bag out of your sight.

    Lock your office,
    shred the trash,
    All Patrons Must Check Their Bags.

    Insure your this, insure your that.
    Beware of dog snatchers!
    Chip the cat.

    I’ve lost a jacket,
    I’ve lost a bike,
    Dad was burgled
    (not at night).

    And I can hear detectors murping.
    Murp murp murp murp.
    I can see the cameras hiding
    (lurk… lurk).

    Sneak
    Take
    Have
    Sell!
    (Police, reports, judging, and jail.)

    Hello, security guards,
    our standing warriors!
    Ah, security tags,
    and two-way mirrors.

    Yikes.
    I’ll say it again:
    Two-way mirrors.

  • Willow St. Resident

    As a victim of one of the burglaries, I want to clarify that my apartment certainly wasn’t unlocked…..well before the burglary anyway, he left the door open after he left through it. (Also, I’m not from the midwest) The burglar came in through the window. He (assuming male) forced down the window above the A/C unit, then reached in and unlocked the security gate on the other side, and then entered through that. Fortunately, the burglar was in a big hurry and didn’t take too much, though he left the place ransacked. Unfortunately the window with the A/C unit in it doesn’t lock (with or without the A/C), so I’ve jammed some dowels in between the upper and lower windows to try to keep someone from entering that way again…..fingers crossed.

    And yes (AnnofOrange), according to the police, it is the same building that was hit a few years back.

  • http://www.BrooklynPeriodontics.com CPW Resident

    Its a shame but this wealthy neighborhood is definitely a target. When I worked at Marty’s videostore on Henry St. we were trusting enough to leave live DVD’s out for sale on the sidewalk until we realized cartons of DVDs were disappearing. With a booby trap I figured out someone would park their bike across the street and grab a crate and leave the scene on the bike. This was in broad daylight with many pedestrians walking in and out of Cranberry’s. Bottom Line: Don’t be so trusting and lock up your stuff at all times no matter where you are.

  • GHB

    With technology as it is, webcams are a great way to catch these dirtbags in the act. Even though they can make an escape, there will still be video of the perp.

  • Chuck Taylor

    The same happened in our building at 62 Montague Street several months ago. We have now installed security cameras at the entrance and elevator. Four robberies over three days…

  • cat

    @Willow St. resident,
    I’m sorry you were burglarized. I had a burglar enter in the same way years ago when I lived in Manhattan. If you go to a locksmith, they have a device (with a lock) that you can install on the side of the window sash that will prevent the window from being opened. I had also used dowels, but the thief got around those somehow (can’t remember the details now).

  • Billy Reno

    Lock your doors, NoJo!

  • stuart little

    seems unlikely that people would leave their doors unlocked. More likely that the burglar climbed in through a window and left the door unlocked behind him. The BHA probably misunderstood what the police said. It often gets things perfectly backwards.

  • bklyn20

    If your windows are wood and not too exquisite, you can drill holes in the sashes when the window is closed. (Just go about 3/4 of the way through, of course.) Put long, strong nails in the holes. This way, burglars have to break glass to enter through a window. I imagine you could do it in a window with an a.c. as well. I think this is harder for crooks to dislodge than dowels would be.