Faced with a rash of burglaries around Bay Ridge, some residents are taking their defense into their own hands…quite literally.
“When I go to bed, I take my son’s baseball bat with me,” one woman who attended a recent public safety town hall attested, openly sobbing in front of those around her. “It’s terrible. I can’t live like this. I love Bay Ridge, but I feel like leaving Bay Ridge. I know it happens everywhere, but this is way out of control.”
If she took one bat to bed, another woman in the crowd said she had “a baseball bat in every room on every floor behind every door, and I have cameras everywhere. I’m not going to be a victim,” the resident attested.
The fears of these women, as well as the rest at the town hall at Our Lady of Angels, 337 74th Street, are bolstered by sobering police statistics.
As of October 12, the precinct had investigated 248 burglaries in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights over the course of 2008.
Nearly 20 percent of these robberies – 43 according to the most recent estimates — have occurred in the last month, officials said.
During the same month in 2007, only 23 burglaries had occurred – nearly half, statistics show.
Addressing the crowd at the town hall, which was put together by State Senator Marty Golden’s office, Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez, the 68th Precinct’s commanding officer, said there have been 39 burglaries in his command since September 5.
While the precinct is up only three burglaries for the year, the sudden steep increase in the crime – largely within the area bounded by 86th Street, 65th Street, Seventh Avenue and Fourth Avenue — has raised a red flag, he acknowledged.
In particular, Rodriguez said the fact that “four of the burglaries happened while people were home” was particularly troubling. “For people to do it that brazenly raises the level of concern in the command,” he explained.
“Our job is to find out why [it’s happening] and who’s doing it,” Rodriguez stressed. “We locked up seven people for burglary last week alone. I’m confident we’re going to get some of these other guys.”
Most of the burglaries have taken place between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., Rodriguez said. “All but three” have utilized the rear window to gain entry.
Over the last two weeks, Rodriguez’s officers have been distributing flyers in the area with tips on how one can better secure their home.
The flyer explains that securing doors and windows, especially those in the rear of one’s home, will go a long way in preventing a burglary.
Residents were also encouraged to light any dimly lit areas and to secure all gated areas with a strong lock. If your building has an alarm, you should keep it on as much as possible, the flyer notes.
“A lot of times people are getting burglarized because they’ve left their back windows open or their back doors unsecured,” Rodriguez said during an interview with this paper Thursday. “We don’t usually patrol the rear yards.”
At last week’s town hall, Rodriguez also stressed how important a community tip can be.
“The more eyes and ears we have, it helps us immensely,” Rodriguez said. “If you see anyone suspicious, please call us. Give us as good a description as you can.”
And, if you have been broken into, he emphasized, “Don’t touch anything.” It’s more likely, Rodriguez explained, that responding officers will be able to collect evidence such as fingerprints or DNA if the crime scene is untouched.
Residents who attended the town hall said they wanted to see more beat cops.
“We’re asking you to help us,” pleaded Rosemarie O’Keefe, who was commissioner of the mayor’s Community Assistance Unit under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
“Why can’t we have a foot patrol?” she demanded. “We used to have a C-POP [community patrol officers’ program] officer who used to call us and ask if we were okay. I’m scared to death they’re watching us. A doctor who’s handicapped like I am was burglarized with his wife right next to him. I want to see foot patrols. I want Chief [Joseph] Fox to know how hysterical we are. This doesn’t happen in this community.”
“We don’t have the manpower to put out foot posts all the time,” Rodriguez replied. “Chief Fox did send up extra patrols. That’s why you see foot patrols out there.”
“Shouldn’t you have done that before the burglaries began?” demanded a man in the back of the room.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Rodriguez rejoined.
The commander noted that while his command is fighting this current up-tick in burglaries, the number of residential and commercial break-ins is down nine percent from just two years ago.
“[The current burglary condition] is a minor spike, but we want to keep the numbers as low as possible,” he said. “With the economy going south and the holidays coming up, we don’t want anything to get out of hand. We want to apprehend these burglars and keep this place as safe as possible.”
Anyone wishing to get a free crime prevention survey of your home can do so by calling the 68th Precinct at (718) 439-3455.
