Busted car windows

Yes, I've experienced it first hand. Last Fall our drivers side window was smashed and our sirius radio and my husband's sunglasses were stolen out of the car...totally sucked. Our car was parked on our block (st. mark's btw Vanderbilt and Underhill) I was shocked, but I think it's another sign of crime going up in the neighborhood. I've lived here since 99 and I can't believe how much more dangerous it is now:(

2006 was not that long ago. There has been an increase from say 8 years ago imo. Seems as if it happens in waves.

There's some Cherokee on Prospect Place with New Mexico plates that I think has like 3 or 4 thousand in parking fines.

Subject: STAND UP

I would send photos to the local PCT. and ask why something hasn't been done to tow these cars away.

I would also advise the CPT. I intend to go to the local papers and have them check it out as it appears a few traffic cops are taking the easy way out by repeatedly ticketing the same cars to meet their daily requirements and not doing their jobs as required.

This approach works ,I know!

the last time there was a recession(oh, about theG HW Bush era...) there was also a rash of car windows broken...sometimes as many as five in an evening. That and the rise in crack related crime. Could it be a Bush Caused Problem. I'm just saying.
The most important thing to do is report stuff even if you feel the cops might laugh at you (happened to me) or at first ignore you. On the whole they are wonderfully responsive and very intereactive with our 60 year old Block Association which you should join. (Park Place and Underhill Avenue Civic Association. 5 bucks. Such a bargain.)

Go Mets!

ParadeRest wrote: The police dept is not required to tow vehicles simply because they owe and excessive amount of money in parking fines. The police dept doesn't even have access to that information. The New York City Marshall is responsible for towing scofflaw vehicles. The police generally only tow for certain hazardous violations. The police (not traffic agents)can tow a vehicle that appears to be abandoned or stolen but just becuase a car has parked in one spot for a long time doesn't mean that it's abandoned or stolen. If the vehicle doesn't meet certain criteria to be towed, the police would basically be stealing peoples cars.

Hamilton, when you say traffic cops I assume you are talking about traffic agents (who are not at all cops). The local precinct has absolutely nothing to do with the traffic folks.

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I stand corrected.

Last night I counted the spots of broken window glass while walking my dogs. On Bergen before Franklin (after the B65 bus stop) there are 2 spots about 15-20 feet away from each other. Between Franklin and Bedford, there are 2 more on opposite sides of the street. I saw one more on Dean between Franklin and Bedford. But the 2 spots on Bergen (after the bus stop) are not the first broken windows I've seen there. In the past few months there have been at least 4 other broken windows, in almost the same spots. Last summer someone had their window broken and my super told me that that stretch is notorious for people busting car windows.

yea, i've noticed the glass on bergen b/w bedford and franklin

That Saab on Park really pisses me off. It just takes up a space where I can park my car.

As for the white van on Vandy and Plaza (right outside my building) - the van was packed with stuff...just begging for it to be broken into.

Advice: if you park on the street...leave nothing in your car for criminals to steal. They probably wont break in if they dont see something.

Yeah that sucks royally. On the day I bought my car it was broken into in SOHO, no less. There's nothing we can do about random idiots who want to smash our windows, but here are some tips that may help:

1. Leave nothing, and I mean nothing, in your car.

2. Empty the glove box and leave it open at night so thieves can see there is nothing in the box. If you have the kind of car with an auto light in the glove box that won't shut off, take the light bulb out.

3. If you have a hatchback, or wagon, remove the hatch cover inside the car and tuck it away under the trunk carpet to stem the curiosity of thieves, and empty the hatch trunk completely.

4. Fold down the rear seats if you have a hatchback or wagon.

5. If you stuff things under the front seats make sure nothing is sticking out. No papers- nothing.

6. Dark window tints increase curiosity at night and can lead to break-in attempts.

6. If you have a removable stereo faceplate REMOVE IT. That's the whole point of buying one. It sure beats the days when the only option was a Bensi Box.

7. Those heavy duty lock plates DO NOT WORK. Don't waste your money on them.

8. As far as car theft goes, invest in an engine cutoff security system. The only way they can move the car is by greasing the tires and pulling the car out sideways, or breaking the windows and putting the tranny in neutral and pushing the car out of the space. To prevent that, DON'T PARK ON CORNERS. An engine cutoff is not 100% effective, because, after all, who knows what measures a thief will go to to get your car. But it's worth buying. LoJack systems are worthless because by the time you wake up in the morning, your car is dismantled and the LoJack is disabled. CLUBS, and steering wheel covers DO NOT WORK, and are not a theft deterrent. Pedal locks and shifter locks are better, especially when used together. A wheel boot is effective, but I don't know if that's legal. Alarms, well...

9. If anybody wants info about the engine cutoff system I use, PM me. I researched this stuff to death after my car was broken into.

Hope that helped, and I didn't just increase the paranoia. I mean, you never really know if the measures are working, but i guess that's city life.

i'm always paranoid, about the locale repair shops drumming up businesses.

Subject: Car Windows Smashed

About two years ago, at least once a month that I noticed, on the corner of Bergen St. and Carlton Ave., I would find someone in the morning sweeping up a car's side windows that had been smashed the previous night. After noticing this and seeing a pattern of recurrences, I too wondered why this would be happening. The fact that the car was on the corner made it easy to run away from after breaking in and burglarizing it, since there were four immediate escape paths on that intersection (north and south along Carlton, or east and west on Bergen). Also interesting was a concentrated amount of what looked like drug sales foot traffic to a particular house near the corner, across the street from the horder whose townhouse was cleaned out to some degree by the sanitation crews for a few weeks last year. The typical drug user traffic included frequent banging on the ground floor window of the dealing spot that never seemed to have the lights on and had its windows shuttered on the inside. There would be people knocking on the window and not ringing the bell as early as seven in the morning, continuing well past midnight. Many of the local neighborhood vagrants that haven't checked into the Phoenix House on Prospect Pl. still seem to be visiting (like Patch, the rambunctious panhandler at the newsstand by the 7th Ave. Q station). While things died down a bit, all of this, I speculate, might be correlated to the persistent car window smashing around the way; a petty criminal who needs a fix or a hit or a rock might not be above breaking into a car and snatching stuff to sell or exchange for drugs. Sorry if this went off-topic, but I sense an interconnectedness.

Batman. We need Batman.