Some crimes up in 102nd; precinct needs your help

Commanding Officer Captain Charles McEvoy of the 102nd Precinct briefed area residents on the latest developments in crime fighting at last week’s Precinct Council meeting.
For the current 28 day period, the 102nd has experienced a slight spike in crime — up 13 incidents from the same period last year. The increases, McEvoy said, are primarily attributed to an increase in burglaries and grand larcenies.
The majority of burglaries are residential, which are occurring during the day when people are working, he said. People are breaking into homes usually through a back door or window and removing anything accessible like jewelry, small electronics, DVDs, and video game systems.
Resident Naidoo Veerapen, concerned about the home burglaries, has told his children to be extra vigilant. “I have a son who attends college and comes home during the day,” Veerapen said. “I told him to be extra careful when he walks into the house in the event someone is there.”
McEvoy stated that the spike in grand larcenies has been attributed to a tremendous increase in credit card fraud. “A lot of this identity theft is when you receive your mail, you open it up and you see someone has charged $5,000 worth of items down in Florida and you haven’t been to Florida in 10 years. We have to accept that as a crime.”
According to McEvoy, criminals are preying on those people who are careless with their credit cards. He says people who leave them in their cars when they run into a store and men who don’t like keeping their wallet in their back pockets and instead leave them on the console are the most susceptible.
The car windows are usually shattered and the credit cards are stolen. Most victims don’t even realize that their card is gone until they go shopping and then think they have lost their credit card.
There has also been an increasing number of youth- on-youth robberies involving iPods and cell phones, particularly the new updated version of the Sidekick phone, according to police.
The T-Mobile Sidekick is a cell phone/mp3 player/camera/keyboard that has a suggested retail of $399. The sleek device is one of the most popular cell phones to hit the market in recent years. All one has to do to use a pilfered Sidekick is change the Sim card located in the back of the phone and the device is ready to use.
The precinct has been giving out flyers to schools urging students not to use their cell phones.
“Obviously kids are not allowed to have cell phones in school, but basically every kid has one,” McEvoy said. “They’ll turn them off in school and as soon as they get outside, the first thing they do is turn it on, check their messages and make their calls. That leads to problems.”
A great arrest about a week ago ended up closing a few open robbery cases the precinct had and has led to the prevention of quite a few more youth-on youth robberies.
“A lot of our good work is contingent upon the men and women who are here, civilians, the people that reside in the precinct,” said the captain. “A lot of people feel if they do see something, they are hesitant to call because they don’t want to have to go down to court. You can remain anonymous. We don’t have caller ID’s on any of our phones. If you see a serious crime and want to call the precinct, you can call the detective squad or the precinct. You don’t have to identify yourself and if you know who did the crime, give us all the information and that’s it. You can wash your hands of it and we will take it from there. We certainly do need your help.”
McEvoy praised his officers for their dedication and commitment since his appointment as Commanding officer on January 2.
“What I have seen so far since I’ve been at this precinct is that the men and women in the 102nd have worked very hard,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount of great police work going on here. I’m very proud to be the precinct commander of the 102. I am very grateful to have this opportunity and I am making the most of it.”
If you have any information that would be helpful in solving any crimes in the community, contact the precinct at these numbers.
Detective Squad: 718-805-3212
102nd Precinct: 718-805-3200