A Greenpoint thief did his Christmas shopping a little early — looting five buildings on a quiet Manhattan Avenue block.
The rash of six burglaries in a four-block radius around Manhattan Avenue and Frost Street included two apartments in the same building.
“My building was hit twice!” said Tom Burrows, a member of the Community Board 1 Public Safety Committee. “I walked outside one night and saw police cars and asked what happened. They said, ‘Another burglary.’ ”
The crime wave began on Dec. 1, when a thief broke into an apartment on Metropolitan Avenue near Manhattan Avenue and stole a laptop, iPod and television.
The next night, a thief lifted a laptop from a Humboldt Street apartment.
On Friday, a thief burglarized Burrows’s building on Manhattan Avenue near Frost Street, stealing laptops from two apartments while its tenants were at work. Police reported that another computer was stolen from an apartment in the building across the street.
In each case, the perpetrators climbed up fire escapes and pried open unlocked windows.
Deputy Inspector Terrence Hurson of the 94th Precinct said that officers are paying attention to the spate of burglaries, which mirrors a pre-Christmas trend from last year.
“We’re moving some people into the area to pay attention to it,” said Hurson.
Burrows complained that police should have done a better job notifying his neighbors about the crime spike.
“Warnings and fliers could have been distributed,” said Burrows. “I’ve been showing people in my building how to lock their windows.”
