By Alex Robinson
Three apartments in the same Flushing building were burglarized Saturday, residents said, with the loss of more than $60,000 in cash and jewels.
Eun Hae Lim said she left her 34th Avenue apartment at 10:30 a.m. to spend the day in Brooklyn with friends. When she returned home at 7:30 p.m., she found her belongings strewn across her bedroom floor. Lim said an intruder took $30,000 cash and $10,000 worth of jewelry, including her wedding rings.
“I felt upset,” Lim said. “I just called the police and they just said to not touch anything.”
Her neighbor, Nam Atee Kang, left her apartment at 1:30 p.m. that day to go to a dance class. She came home 30 minutes after Lim to find a similar scene in her own apartment. Kang said she lost more than $3,000 in cash and close to $20,000 worth of jewelry. She said the thieves seemed to know what they were doing, as they did not take any imitation jewelry Kang had.
“They got everything,” Kang said. “My jewelry were diamonds, gold and silver. And they got my ruby thumbtack.”
Police confirmed the burglaries and said there was no forced entry into either apartment, but a third apartment on the floor upstairs had its door damaged.
The unforced entries into the two apartments on the lower floor could have been a result of the locks being picked or the residents leaving their doors unlocked, according to police.
Lim, however, said she was sure she locked her apartment.
“I definitely locked the door when I left,” she said. “The detective came later and said there was no damage on the door, meaning somebody had the key.”
Kang said she was also sure she locked her door before she left.
Lim claimed a neighbor on the floor upstairs, whose apartment was the only one forcibly broken into, had recently changed her locks.
She also said a fourth apartment had been burglarized, but the tenant decided not to report it to the police. As a result, police could not confirm this.
“I’m still scared. I can’t stay home alone. I went out yesterday and the day before that because I can’t be there alone,” Lim said.
Only the second and third floors of the seven-unit building had been burglarized, said Lim.
Police said the investigation into the burglaries was ongoing.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
