When an area business owner went to retrieve his van
that had been stolen, he discovered a sea of stripped-down
vehicles in an illegal chop shop in Brooklyn’s Gateway mall.
Recently, a Howard Beach business owner parked his van in his parking lot in the early morning hours. When he returned, the van was gone – and on his security footage he saw the vehicle peeling out of the parking lot.
Two days later, the owner, who did not want to give his name for fear of again being targeted by criminals, received a phone call: His van had been found.
“I took a ride to where it was – behind the Gateway mall in Brooklyn – and there was my van, with its four tires and spare stolen,” he said.
But what was most surprising, the owner said, was in the area where his van was were parked about 10 other stolen vans – most of which had been completely stripped down. The Gateway mall is located in the 75th Police Precinct not far from the Brooklyn-Queens border on Gateway Drive, near the Belt Parkway.
“There were no doors, no bumpers, no tires on them,” he said. “There were no seats. Whoever is doing this has their own chop shop going on there.”
The individual said that when he made a police report in the 75th Precinct, an officer told him there had been a “high theft rate for these vehicles in this area.
“It was incredible,” the owner said in reference to seeing the sea of stolen vans. “It was unbelievable. I’m really lucky I found the van.”
According to the owner, his security camera caught the thief popping open the driver’s door – which had been locked – and “cracking the steering column” before driving away. It was a pedestrian passing by the mall who found the vehicle and managed to track down the owner through the van’s registration.
The 75th Precinct, which covers a number of neighborhoods in East New York, including Cypress Hills, Starrett City and City Line, has experienced an increase in grand larceny over the past year, going from 509 reported incidents at this time last year to 540 as of July 21 this year, according to city statistics. The number of reports of grand larceny auto have remained the same – 138 as of July 21 – as last year, while the number of reported burglaries have dropped from from 336 to 327.
The owner said he hopes that bringing attention to the matter will result in the illegal chop shop being wiped out – and, hopefully, fewer stolen vehicles and more peace of mind for law-abiding citizens trying to run family-owned businesses.
By Anna Gustafson
