It could be dubbed the Case of the Traveling Trash Pails.
Residents ofDitmas Park Westwho have been hit by a crew of garbage pail thieves brought their problem to the most recent meeting of the 70th Precinct Community Council, which was held at Belsky House, 140 Lawrence Avenue.
Speaking to Deputy Inspector Ralph Monteforte, the precinct’s commanding officer, one woman, who lives on Rugby Road between Ditmas Avenue and Dorchester Road, said the cans — new $40 ones with wheels — had been lifted from in front of her house on pickup day, with the thieves removing the trash and leaving it on the ground. Perhaps more disturbingly, she said, they had returned on a subsequent occasion to grab the covers from the driveway.
Another woman said the bandits had actually come down her driveway to collect the pails.
They said they feared they were not the only victims. “While I was looking on the block yesterday,” one woman noted, “I noticed that a lot of people just had their garbage out in bags.”
Their neighbors to the north have also been hit, said one man who lives in Prospect Park South. “We’ve also had garbage can thefts in the past couple of weeks,” he told Monteforte. “So, it’s something weird.”
“Whoever it is, is watching,” one of the women cautioned, positing that construction crews working in the community may have helped themselves to the pails.
Monteforte promised that the precinct would look into the problem. “We’ll go up and down the blocks, and see what’s happening,” he told the crowd. “We’ll see if there’s a can thief out there.”
