Mad Soda Can Bomber at Clark Street Dorm?

By on April 22, 2011 1:03 pm in crime

A reader alerted us to this disturbing message on the Yahoo Brooklyn Heights Parents page:

This evening at 8:30pm my husband was walking on the sidewalk in front of the dormitory at 55 Clark Street and an extra-large, full can of soda fell to the ground almost hitting him on the head. It missed him by only 4 or 5 inches.
The doorman working at the building across the street said that this is a recurring problem since, apparently,there is a resident (a student?) who has been throwing/dropping soda cans out of the window attempting to hit people. My husband called the police, but when they came they said they could do nothing about it since it was not clear from exactly which room the can was thrown, and also because no one was hurt. I intend to call the precinct tomorrow to report this again, but in the meanwhile I wanted to write to warn everyone to please, please avoid walking on the side of Clark street under the dormitory, especially in the evening and especially with your children. The can was most certainly thrown from at least several stories up and could do serious damage if it were to hit a person or young child.

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  • Jack

    Why doesn’t someone tell the people who run the dorm?

  • Publius

    Exactly. A threatened lawsuit against the dorm’s owner will get fast results. E.g. expulsion of the offending resident.

  • http://about.me/pschaffer Perry Schaffer

    This is – excuse me – f*ked up. If this has in fact happened numerous times, police and/or management of building should put a camera from a proper vantage across the street to get a large part of the building in frame. For starters.

  • Peter

    Can’t they lift some fingerprints off the bottle? That tactic seemed to work in the movie “The Client” :)

  • Jo

    Here you go, everyone should write to them:

    http://www.studenthousing.org/about/contact

  • tb

    Ive seen a bowl of cereal actually hit someone.

  • x

    This dorm of obnoxious “students” has to go.

  • lori

    I agree with Perry. There are so many surveillance cameras everywhere I don’t believe there is not one in the vicinity. Also, if the doorman has seen this, perhaps he could pinpoint what floor it is coming from.

  • MadeInBrooklyn

    This is nothing new… Years ago some kids got tossed from the dorms for pissing out the windows at people.

  • JoeyJoralemon

    These college kids need to go, for sure–they should move that dorm to the bottom of the East River!

    No respect for the neighborhood whatsoever–what a bunch of immature, lost, douches. (Not to mention, the most unattractive student body I’ve ever seen.)

  • Serpico

    Typical of the police to do nothing. God forbid they should actually haul their doughnut fatted butts into the building and question some of the residents or see if a security camera picked up something. Oh sure the’ll investigate it once someone gets hit…
    When cops are tardy to do their job, get their name(s) and shield number(S) and call it in to 311, not the precinct, the’ll just throw your complaint in the trash.

  • George Earl

    Once again I say, Brooklyn Heights needs more reliable cops, both night and day. All too much is breaking out that absolutely nobody pays attention to. Or is it that all too many of the “better” Heights residents are scared of getting involved?

  • Miky

    About ten days ago, I saw something fall from the dormitory and come within a few feet of three tourists standing in front of the dorm. It all happened very quickly and whatever the object was, it made a loud clanking noise (like a piece of metal) and then we couldn’t locate it. I think it must have rolled under a car nearby. The tourists were clearly very unnerved by it.

  • WillowtownCop

    Serpico-

    It’s interesting that you’d pick the screen name of a hero cop and then trash us and make donut jokes about something you know nothing about.

    They haven’t “done” anything because there’s nothing they can do. Do you think they should kick in every door until someone admits it was them? Dusting for fingerprints would accomplish what exactly? Do you think these students have records that would reveal the culprit? And even if they did, there’s no way to establish probable cause that the person intended to drop something out the window. You can’t even get them for littering unless you see a particular person throw something- which would involve training a high quality camera on every window.

    I can only imagine what you’d be screaming about if the cops went in gestapo style and kicking everyone’s door in, taping everyone’s bedroom window, and forcing hundreds of innocent people to have their prints taken over what might or might not be misdemeanor reckless endangerment.

    it’s interesting that people are so outraged about this in this neighborhood. When I worked in NYCHA, people threw glass vodka bottles, bottles of piss, free weights, canned goods, etc. at us all the time. We did all we could do- look up and walk fast into the building. If something hit one of us, a neighborhood zero tolerance ticket crackdown to let everyone know that we weren’t going to tolerate it.

  • WillowtownCop

    I don’t know what you mean by tardy, exactly, either. The average time a crime in progress (like an actual assault, burglary, etc.) takes for the police to get there is almost 10 minutes, between two dispatchers, etc. This is not a priority unless someone gets hit, and sectors can hold 5 jobs. So if none of the jobs before you require any paperwork, it will be 50 minutes.

    I suspect you think you’re going to intimidate the cops by taking their names, but “slow response” is not a category of CCRB complaints. You can look on their website yourself if you don’t believe me.

    No one wants to be holding jobs. It happens because there are 20% less cops than there were ten years ago. The city has be repainting traffic an auxillary cars to make you think there are as many of us, but it isn’t true. If you have a problem with how long you had to wait, I suggest you take it up with the people who caused the delay- the mayor, city council, etc. But you’re not going to do that, because why would you want more donut eating pigs on the street? You would just rather have them do exactly what you say al the time, you know, because your tax money pays their salary and you’re taking names.

  • WillowtownCop

    One last thing- why the outrage at the cops and not the students who are actually responsible for it? Things aren’t going to hell because the cops didn’t show up- they went to hell before the cops didn’t show up. Cops aren’t throwing things at anyone out of the St. George hotel. Some of these kids were raised like little animals and turned loose on our neighborhood when they turned 18. They have no idea how to be respectful adults, and that’s their parent’s fault.

    Be careful what you wish for- the junkies and hookers who lived their in the bad old days weren’t throwing anything at passersby out the windows.

  • x

    If this continues, the dean of the school (whatever school these kids come from) needs to be involved.

  • David on Middagh

    I will echo Willowtowncop’s sentiment. Morally, responsibility/blame goes first to the dropper(s), next to other dorm residents who knew, and next to EHS (Educational Housing Services). I believe this is the order of legal accountability, too.

  • Suzy R.

    It won’t be a problem until someone gets hurt.
    Then they’ll ask “why didn’t anyone do anything about it.”

  • heightsguy

    A thrown yogurt missed me by a foot or so at that location. The soda can and etc. are certainly quite reprehensible as well as infantile behavior and EHS should warn the inmates (oops, residents) that if caught, they will be expelled and their school (mostly Pace) notified. Students should sign a “good behavior” contract at intake to the facility. But we need not generalize this to the entire student body who by and large don’t cause much trouble. Believe me, I have seen quite dreadful vandalism, drunken brawling, sexual harassment at dorms. It is a continual problem at colleges and universities. These is not Harvard on the East River, but neither is it frat rowdies or Animal House. There is actually a subgroup of older, mature art students from some academy uptown.

  • T.K. Small

    Suzy R. I said basically the same thing concerning the bent vertical bars on the Promenade resulting from the collision.

  • someone

    I usually tend not to agree with Willowtown Cop and got my own issues with cops feeling entitled to be above the law, but the points are valid!

    I always think its funny if people threaten to take your name. Must make them feel like growing a few inches.

  • x

    A complaint should be addressed to the building so they can address their residents properly.

  • Serpico

    @ WillowtownCop, Sorry for my confusing use of “tardy” I meant reluctant. I had no issue with the officers response time only their lack of action once they showed up. “they said they could do nothing about it since it was not clear from exactly which room the can was thrown, and also because no one was hurt” Do you honestly think they handled the case appropriately? A crime was committed and they did nothing. Yes the little puke that threw the can is responsible and should be punished. However, if it happens again and someone gets hurt the officers that did not even make an attempt to find the perpetrator should share some of the blame.

    P.S. Hookers and junkies I can handle, in fact I wouldn’t mind a few of them around to contrast some of the obnoxious yuppies, around here.

  • hooker

    I would not mind some hookers either. You cant find them easily anymore when you need one.

  • pankymom

    and junkies are slow and a big help holding a parking spot for ya while you circle the block.

  • weegee

    For what it’s worth, I’ve never heard of a dropped object getting a “CSI”/Lieutenant Columbo treatment. Even during those all-too-frequent “air mail” incidents when the police themselves are specific targets of thrown objects. Limited resources being what they are, when you think long-term/prosecution, there’s very little chance of a DA’s office needing to enter the realm of fingerprint evidence with a charge that amounts to, in the case of non-injury, criminal mischief or reckless endangerment. You get the punk, the punk will probably plead to a charge. Not a complicated criminal matter. Evidence Collection Teams are generally busy dealing with burglaries and the like, and aren’t routinely called to stuff like this. Of course, if someone were hit, it would be a different story and the evidentiary value of the object would be vital. So, no, don’t expect to see Tyvek suits and print-dusting at the next bottle-from-above.

  • Daffy Duck

    Put a net around the building to catch the jumpers and soda cans. Then bring back the hookers for next semester. Sex ed. is gooooodd.

  • skunky

    complain to the owner/manager of the dorm. document it, certified mail, etc. next time someone gets hurt, you’ve got a great piece of info to give to a personal injury lawyer who will be suing the owner/manager. i.e. that they were notified of the problem yet it persisted.

  • phantom menace

    I believe there is enough evidence here for the community (local community board or city council, or the BHA) to post warning signs or even put up a small barrier. Not sure what the best civic/legal route would be, but we owe it to everyone who might unknowingly walk by and get hurt or killed. Besides small objects, I recall at least one human being falling and a number of large heavy objects being thrown from those dorms in the past few years.

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