Police are urging residents to stay safe from theft in this holiday season, saying there’s still a large amount of preventable theft happening in Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village and Maspeth.
At the COP 104 meeting last week at Maspeth Town Hall, Captain Michael Cody, the 104th’s commanding officer, said that grand larceny is up by 28 percent this year to date and that there have been 481 reports this year compared to 375 last year.
Cody asked residents to be especially careful during the holiday season, which can be a prime time for theft. He said some incidents could be easily avoided.
“People will just leave their car unattended, unlocked in the driveway,” he said. “They wake up in the morning, some people leave their laptops in there, computer equipment, credit cards — bingo; in the morning it’s gone.”
He warned residents not to leave gifts or other valuables in the car while shopping.
To help combat this, Cody said the 104th also received approval to add a public service announcement to the back of patrol cars. He said his is the only precinct in the city to get approval from the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, to add a sign urging people to secure their valuable, lock their doors and lock their car.
Cody reported that burglaries are down 17 percent compared to last year, but told attendees that they could still help that number go lower.
He said around Christmas, simple prevention methods make a difference. He asked residents to be careful when recycling or throwing away packaging from expensive gifts.
“The high-end TV containers and stuff like that, cut them, turn them inside out before you recycle. That way maybe somebody that’s scavenging around doesn’t see you got a nice new flat screen TV,” he said.
During the last month, robberies were also up 28 percent in Ridgewood, Cody said, but the precinct has added more patrols to tamp that down.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
