Captain John Travaglia goes over the latest crime stats as well as other issues in the 104 Precinct at the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together meeting on Monday night. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.
The 104 Precinct gave a small report highlighting some of the crime that’s going on in their patrol area at the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together (COMET) meeting on Monday night.
Captain John Travaglia, 2nd in-command at the 104, reported on five crimes that happened recently in the area.
There were three grand larcenies and two cars stolen in the precinct. The grand larcenies happened in the vicinities of 66th Street and 52nd Avenue, 60 Street and 59th Drive and 73rd Street and 52nd Court, all in Maspeth.
Travaglia said that the 66th Street one was a rent dispute between a landlord and a tenant, which led to a laptop and a set of keys missing from the apartment. The 60th Street incident involved jewelry stolen by a caretaker from a house. He said that counts as a grand larceny and not a burglary because the person entered the home legally.
The two stolen cars were a 2009 Toyota Highlander, which was taken on September 19 in the vicinity of 58th Street and Rust Street, and a Toyota Camry, which occurred in the morning of September 23.
He also reported that there were no burglaries in the 104 patrol area, that is in the civic’s coverage area or “COMET Land” as it’s commonly called, for the last 28 day period.
That news came much to the surprise of Roe Daraio, COMET’s president, saying she has never heard that before.
“This is my first time, in 30 years, I’ve never heard of any burglaries in the last 28 days,” she said.
“If I find one I’ll let you know,” Travaglia said, which produced laughs from the crowd.
Then on Wednesday morning, Daraio sent out an e-mail alerting residents of a burglary that took place on Tuesday afternoon on 69th Place, south of Calamus Avenue and bordering Woodside and Elmhurst.
During Monday night’s meeting, Captain Donald Powers of the 108 Precinct mentioned a burglary that took place on 70th Street and 51 Avenue, which is less than a mile away from each other.
Daraio urged residents to be aware of their surroundings.
“Those of you who are home during the day when most burglaries occur need to stay alert,” she wrote in the email. “If something doesn’t appear to be right – it probably isn’t.”
Deputy Inspector Michael Cody said in an email that the investigation for that burglary is ongoing.
Later in the meeting, Joann Berger, a resident attending the meeting, asked the captain about trucks taking illegal routes in Maspeth.
Berger said that last week, a truck driving on a road where they shouldn’t be, was involved in a car accident near where Maspeth Avenue is. She added that she’s seen many trucks going on 64th Street and making a left onto Grand Avenue, which are also areas that are not truck routes.
Travaglia said that the precinct is trying the best they can to enforce the truck route rules; the command has issued 282 truck summonses so far this year according to the captain. But it’s difficult to keep track of all the trucks, he said, because they usually try to drive in the non-truck routes in the early morning hours. The captain said that he’s seen a shift of truck activity move to later hours because of the amount of tickets they’ve given out.
“The enforcement is there, but it’s a monumental task,” Travaglia said.
Daraio also brought up an ongoing problem in Maspeth: Commuter vans.
She said she’s seen them driving around the neighborhood again and she asked the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) to attend another future meeting to discuss the issue. She said she wanted to get TLC for this month but they were unable to make it. She hopes they will attend one of the next two meetings in either November or December.
Residents have complained in the past about the vans taking a shortcut through Maspeth during their routes, increasing traffic and congestion in an area that has dealt with that problem for a long time.
By Luis Gronda
