FIND THE LATEST NEWS UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
Aug. 23-29, 2019 including KINGS COURIER & FLATBUSH LIFE
SERVING BENSONHURST, BRIGHTON BEACH, CONEY ISLAND, GERRITSEN BEACH, KINGS HIGHWAY, MANHATTAN BEACH, MIDWOOD, & SHEEPSHEAD BAY
PACKED WITH CRIME
Package thieves wreaking havoc in Sheepshead Bay, locals claim
BY CHANDLER KIDD
Sheepshead Bay and surrounding areas
are being preyed on by unscrupulous
package thieves, who brazenly
pilfer front porches in daring daylight
raids, locals claim.
“It is a dangerous situation because
you don’t know what they are carrying
or what is in the package,” said Dave
Weiner, a longtime Sheepshead Bay
resident and real estate agent.
Weiner joined other Bay residents
at an Aug. 13 community meeting to
vent his frustration over numerous
package thefts he’s witnessed to offi -
cers with the 61st Police Precinct —
which covers Gravesend, Sheepshead
Bay, and Manhattan Beach — saying
he often sees people scurrying off with
packages left for residents of Bedford
Avenue, a charming, well-to-do street
he frequents for his work in real estate.
“It struck me — why was someone
retrieving several packages after
10 p.m. and walking away from the
home instead of bringing them into
the home... It did not register to me until
I started hearing all the complaints
from neighbors, and online as well that
it must have been a theft of packages,”
said Weiner.
The real estate agent said the block
where he lives on Batchelder Street between
avenues V and U is not immune
to package thievery either, and Weiner
claims the sticky-fi ngered mailmen
Beach building
More than 200 contestants worked to build 70 sand sculptures at Coney Island’s
annual Sand Sculpting Contest. See story on Page 4. Derrick Watterson
have tried to nab his parcels in the
past.
They tried to take the packages that
were inside my shed, but thank god I
had it chained up,” he claimed.
Package thievery is not a new phenomena,
nor is it relegated to Sheepshead
Bay, according to Jim Cafi ero,
a security expert with High Tech Security,
who suggested that people are
probably more aware of the thefts due
to the proliferation of relatively cheap
doorbell cameras catching the parcel
perps in the act.
These “porch pirates,” as Cafi ero
calls them, follow delivery trucks and
wait for the package to be placed on
the porch or stoop, before then nabbing
them in brazen, daylight heists,
he said.
Many victims don’t go to the trouble
of reporting the crime to police,
fearing reprisal from the thieves, or
simply not willing to endure the hassle
when many companies will cover the
cost of the stolen item, Cafi ero said.
“It’s gotten to the point where my customers
don’t even tell me about it anymore,”
Cafi ero said.
And when package thieves are
busted, the legal consequences are often
light. A notorious Dyker Heights
package thief has preyed on her neighborhood
for nearly two decades , despite
numerous arrests that have never
added up to more than a few months in
prison.
Police Offi cers Sawh and Marcillo,
who discussed the problem with locals
at the Aug. 13 meeting, said they
have managed to cuff porch pirates in
the past with help from local community
members, and encouraged the audience
to always call police when they
witness a crime.
Vol. 74 No. 34 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE BARS,
RESTAURANTS, DOCTORS
& MUCH MORE
THROUGH SEPTEMBER 16TH AT
BESTOFBK.COM
LIMIT ONE VOTE PER CATEGORY PER PERSON PER DAY
718-260-2554
VOTE
NOW!
/BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/BESTOFBK.COM
