Don’t be a victim, cops ask
Police are asking for the public’s help – they’re trying to keep you from becoming a crime victim.
“No matter how many times we warn the public about it, people are still leaving valuable property behind when they park their cars,” said Police Officer Anthony LoVerme, a crime prevention officer in the 109th Precinct in Flushing.
LoVerme said that cops and Auxiliary Police Officers would be leafleting parked cars in the precinct the weekend after Labor Day to combat a recent rise in vehicle break-ins.
“You’d be amazed what people leave in plain sight,” LoVerme said, ticking off recent swag: “cameras, cash, credit cards, jewelry, expensive bags – all kinds of stuff.”
Flushing is fertile ground for car-looters; with upscale residential neighborhoods surrounding the downtown shopping hub, the pickings are better than many other areas of Queens.
“We get a rash of these incidents and, after we publicize the risk, people are a little more careful, so reports taper off,” LoVerme recounted. “But then people get complacent, and it starts all over again,” he sighed. “We don’t give up, though – ever.”
Leaving valuables in a parked car led to a tragedy recently when a 34-year-old former Queens resident was mowed down and killed in a crash near the edge of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
She had been picnicking with high school chums in the park when she returned to her car – to retrieve her wallet.
–Victor G. Mimoni
