Capt. Martin Briffa, second from right, and Maria Thomson, chairperson of the 102 Precinct Community Council, honored police officers Kevin Warmhold, far left, and Kenneth Vencak, far right, with the Cop of the Month award for their Jan. 3 arrest of two car theives with ties to illegal ‘chop shops’ at the council’s monthly meeting Tuesday.
For several residents of Park Lane South in Richmond Hill that live next to a problem house, enough is enough.
A handful of residents came before the 102 Precinct Community Council Tuesday night, asking law enforcement officials about what could be done regarding a home on Park Lane South, from which neighbors said they could smell marijuana smoke, hear loud noises and arguments at night and had several cars coming and going from it on a regular basis.
Dan Seaman, one of the residents, spoke on behalf of the neighbors at the meeting, telling police that the problem had been coming from squatters he alleged were at the home, which he said was owned by a local HSBC Bank in Forest Hills.
According to a list of incidents he documented, Seaman noted how several times over the last month, there had been screaming both in and outside of the house from its occupants, in addition to drugs.
When he called HSBC about what they were going to do about the problem, he said the bank told him, “‘I’m going to do nothing.’ So I said, ‘You can’t do nothing,’ and he says, ‘There’s nothing we can do.’”
After calling 311 and the city’s Department of Buildings—which he said got him nowhere—Seaman decided to get several of his neighbors together to voice their frustrations with the home.
One retired neighbor, who only referred to himself as Matthew, said the block was ‘pretty quiet’ when he first moved in five years ago, up until the last two months. Since then, Matthew has seen a lot of cars coming in and out of the home, leading him to believe that it could be a drug den.
“It’s a concern, because most of us have families,” he said after the meeting.
Other neighbors told police that there were days where they could smell the odor of marijuana emanating from the home.
Capt. Martin Briffa of the 102 Precinct said that he had only heard about the complaints roughly three weeks ago, but without more serious complaints, police could not step in merely because of people allegedly squatting at the home.
However, Briffa added, in light of the complaints of drug use he received at the meeting, he would be speaking with the precinct’s narcotics unit about the home.
“We’ll try our best within the law,” Briffa said. “We’re here to help.”
In other news, police officers Kevin Warmhold and Kenneth Vencak were recognized with the precinct’s Cop of the Month award. According to Capt. Briffa, both officers were credited for an arrest at 11 p.m. on Jan. 3 at Atlantic Avenue, when they observed two individuals, an unidentified man and a woman, acting suspiciously near the area.
After continued observation, the two suspects were seen taking the license plates off a car from the Ford F-Series, which they switched on a similar car shortly afterwards before breaking into the car and driving off with it.
During police pursuit, the woman leapt out of the car, but she was apprehended along with her male counterpart sometime later. A later records search at the precinct showed that the pair had been arrested at least 13 times for stolen car charges, some of which were taken to illegal ‘chop shops’ for dismantling and reselling.
Capt. Briffa commended both officers on their performance that night, calling their work ‘exemplary.’
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
