Burglaries in Park Slope up 200 Percent

In the past four weeks there were 15 burglaries in Park Slope, creating a big uptick in this particular kind of crime, according to the 78th precinct’s Commanding Officer Captain Michael Ameri.

During the 78 Precinct’s Community Council meeting on Tuesday night, Captain Ameri explained that in the past year, to date, burglaries went up 76 percent, but over all crime went down 2.3 percent.

He said most of these crimes were perpetrated by crooks who climb up fire escapes on the back of buildings and into apartments through unlocked windows.

Ameri also said that the burglars have been focusing on residential apartment buildings around 13th and 14th streets, between Prospect Park West and Fifth Avenue area and then around St. Marks Place and Bergen Street between Fourth and Flatbush avenues.

“I know it’s nice weather and people want to leave their windows open, but you need to lock them,” Ameri said. 

Park Slope Patch recently reported on , with four burglaries from March 7 to 15.

And last week, between March 15 and March 22, there were three more.

The first incident occurred on March sometime between March 15 and 19, when a crook climb the fire escape of a building on Third Street and broke into an apartment through the back window and made off with a computer and $100 in foreign currency.

The 30-year-old victim said that he left his apartment, between Fourth and Fifth avenues, for a long weekend and returned on the 19 at around 10 p.m. and realized that his place was robbed. The crook, who caused no damage when he climbed through the unlocked window, made off with a PC laptop, Apple headphones and $500 in assorted foreign currency for a total of $800.

The next burglary occurred in the same building, sometime between March 19 at 7 a.m. and March 20 at 7 a.m.  A thief climbed up the same fire escape and through another Third Street apartment bedroom window and made off with two laptops, other electronics and some clothes.

The 35-year-old victim said that he left his apartment, on March 19 at around 7 a.m. and returned 24 hours later and saw that his bedroom window was wide open and the screen was on the floor. A quick walk through his apartment he found that he was missing his Apple MacBook Pro, PS3 game console, a Kenneth Cole black coat, Toshiba Satellite Net Book, Kenneth Cole shoes, cuff links and $100 in change for a total of $3,400.

The third incident occurred on March 22 when another climbing crook broke into a St. Marks Place apartment through the back window and stole a laptop, a wallet and $100 in cash.

The 34-year-old victim told police that she left her apartment, between Fifth and Flatbush avenues, for five minutes at around 1 p.m., but that was enough time for the thief to enter her apartment through the back window and rob the place. The crook make off with her MacBook, a YSL red vintage wallet with two debit cards, her Swedish ID and $100 in cash. 

Captain Ameri said that he has assigned additional officers to the day shift, for most burglaries occur during the day when people are at work. 

He said that the most important thing is to keep an eye out and if you see anything unusual to call 9-1-1.

“The most important thing to do as a neighbor is to call us if you see someone on the fire escape, if you hear something unusual or even if your neighbors dog is barking for 30 minutes during the day,” Ameri said. 

Ameri explained that burglaries are extremely invasive crimes and he plans to curb the uptick within the month.

“Hopefully in four weeks I’ll tell you that we have made a couple of arrests,” Ameri said.