By Charles Hack
Carjackers have gone back to school — turning to writing pads to separate drivers from their cars, according to one Nottingham Association member. Cars are being stolen as drivers are lured out of their seat to remove a piece of paper from the back window, warned Bruce MacIntyre, first vice-president of the Nottingham Association, at the group’s February meeting at P.S. 193, 2515 Ave. L. Scammers tape a sheet of paper to the rear window of a victim’s car, according to MacIntyre. The unsuspecting drivers gun their engines, check their mirrors and then notice the paper. Perhaps in a hurry or not thinking, they jump out with their keys still in the ignition to remove the offending paper, and the thief jumps in and drives off. “If you find a piece of paper taped to the back of your window – watch out,” said MacIntyre. Police Office Billy Buckley, from the 70th Precinct’s Community Policing Unit, who spoke at the meeting, said that while thefts of airbags and other car parts have not increased, there have been several incidents where car windows have been broken along Kings Highway near Ocean Avenue. Buckley said that most auto crimes happen between midnight and 5 a.m. Graffiti also continues to plague the neighborhood, but the cops are cracking down. “They are calling them artists and now they are destroying the neighborhood,” said one member of the Nottingham Association. “They can’t stand to see anything clean.” Buckley told association members that the police now have a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti. They are now targeting business owners who do not remove graffiti from their property walls. Storeowners who do not remove graffiti promptly after receiving a warning will get a ticket, Buckley said. But those doing the graffiti have even more reason to worry. “The law has changed,” Buckley said. “If you are caught doing graffiti, it’s now an automatic arrest.” Buckley also told residents that under a new law recently signed by Mayor Bloomberg, anyone under 21 years old caught carrying graffiti implements, such as markers and spray cans, may also be charged. But he said the battle against graffiti is frustrating for city officials. “You can paint over a wall and an hour later it is covered in graffiti,” he said. Residents and business owners who see graffiti can report it to 311. Overall, Compstat statistics show that crime figures have remained largely static, with a hint of an upswing of just 5 percent from 215 reported crimes to 226 for the year to date. Reported grand larceny was up 14 percent from 65 to 74 cases and felony assaults have jumped 33 percent from 21 to 28. Robberies dropped 7 percent, with 69 cases to 64. Burglaries remain unchanged at 37 cases. But anyone who might be unimpressed by these statistics just has to look to see how crime has fallen over the last 13 years. Reported crimes dropped a whopping 73 percent, and 26 percent over the last two years alone.
