POLICE DISCUSS ‘STRANGE’ BURGLARIES AND A SHOOTING IN THE 24TH PRECINCT

Council member Helen Rosenthal gives an award for meritorious service to Deputy Inspector Marlon Larin.

By Anthony Ferrara

Police discussed a shooting at the Douglass Houses and a spate of burglaries in the 24^th precinct (which covers 86^th to 110^th street) at a community council meeting on Wednesday.

• A 19-year-old bystander was shot outside the Douglas Houses project at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday September 4. The police are thinking it might be gang-related and have not arrested anyone yet. “They are not sure if it was the Columbus Avenue Gunners, or another gang,” said Deputy Inspector Marlon Larin. There is a cash reward.

• There have been a flurry of burglaries over the past few weeks, with a total of 11 from 9/5 to 9/16. “These burglaries are of a strange variety,” Larin said. “They are being perpetrated by people who throw heavy objects such as trash cans, and the like, to smash open a store window and grab what they can. Our Street Crimes & Plain Clothes division are working diligently to stop these people.”

• A rash of bank robberies that ran all throughout the summer was finally put down by two of the 24^th’s finest. Officers Lisa Mendoza and Sarah Frankel helped apprehend a Staten Island man known as “Redbeard,” due to his facial hair and/or disguises. The alleged perpetrator, Joseph DiBennadetto, 35, of Staten Island was caught by the police on June 24, and was also found to have a stash of Heroin on his person as well, according to police. We covered it here.

• Since September 5, crimes in Riverside Park have had a slight downturn, with 9 recorded over the past two weeks, as per Compstat. The rash of robberies and assaults reported over the summer have seen a drop in that period. Inspector Larin said that “we have attempted to apprehend the teenage suspects on bicycles who have been preying on our citizens”, and added that “Since the school year has started, these issues have lessened to almost nothing.”

• Officer Rabbit gave a lecture on “skimming;” a practice where a fake reader inside an ATM steals your bank card information, and the criminals behind this can bleed your account dry. One of the ways to tell if the machine is legitimate or not is to wiggle the card inside the reader, if it moves in anyway, or a FDIC sticker is missing, do not use it. There has been an increase in skimming over the past few months, and the best way to avoid it, is to use a branch ATM, or ATM’s located in a reputable store, such as drug stores or supermarkets. The ATM’s that stand out singularly (outside a bodega, or alone on a corner), are not a safe bet.

• On September 19, an attempted bank robbery on 109^th & Columbus was halted before it started by two officers. Two males, whose names have not been released, were caught after a short chase in which one of them carried a concealed pellet gun. Deputy Inspector Marion Laron stated that “Pellet Guns will be charged as regular gun crimes, due to the intimidation factor & visual similarity to real firearms.”

• Larin was also given an award for meritorious service to the community by Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal for helping clean up the Upper West Side. He thanked all of the officers under his leadership, and “hopes we can improve every day.”