The break-in crisis continued with at least three homes, two stores and one restaurant burglarized in the neighborhood last week.
The latest incidents come one week after thieves hit four restaurants in the neighborhood, a story that earned our front page (inset).
The shoplifting included these crimes:
• A thief entered a store near Degraw Street at around 2:40 pm on May 12 and introduced himself as Kevin, perhaps to lull the clerk into a false sense of security. And, indeed, when she was busy with a customer, he took 11 pairs of fancy shades off the shelf and ran out. The total haul came to more than $1,150.
• One shoplifter was arrested, but his accomplice got away, after a daring raid of the Serene Rose boutique between Third and Fourth streets on May 9. Cops said that the thieves entered at around noon and took a ruffle top, a zipper-free taupe, a skirt, a necklace and other items before fleeing. One of the perps was later caught after a witness tip.
Meanwhile, Slopers’ homes and offices were also under assault:
• A resident of a Second Street apartment told cops that someone — perhaps one of his “multiple” housemates — took a bag off of a living room table on May 6. He told cops that he was not home between 5 am and noon when he returned to find that his laptop and camera had been taken from the building, which is between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
• A thief stole two computers out of a Seventh Street apartment when the tenant was gone between May 10 and 11. The resident of the unit, which is near Fourth Avenue, told cops that she was not there from 4 am until 11 pm the next day when she returned to find the goods gone. She told cops that “several” people had access to the apartment “through the roommate.”
• A quick-moving thief grabbed a laptop out of a Baltic Street real-estate office on May 13. The victim told cops that she was out of the office, which is near Fourth Avenue, from 3:20 to 3:35 pm.
And finally, one restaurant dodged a bullet:
• A thief tried to bust into Blue Ribbon Sushi on Fifth Avenue overnight on May 13, but never got past the front door before giving up. Workers finished up for the night at the restaurant, which is near First Street, at 1:30 am, but when an employee showed up for work at 5 pm, he discovered that the wood-framed front entrance had been damaged in the burglary attempt.
Despite all the incidents last week, overall crime is down three percent this year in the 78th Precinct compared to the same period last year. So far this year, there have been 60 burglaries and 137 grand larcenies, compared to 75 burglaries and 131 larcenies by this point last year, a drop of five percent.
