(Photo: SunnysidePost)
Jan. 29, By Christian Murray
The police have yet to apprehend any suspects following a rash of residential burglaries that have taken place in Sunnyside in the past two months.
The burglaries, which have all occurred between 40th Street and 52nd Street on the north side of Queens Blvd, have taken place inside apartment buildings, with the perpetrator(s) gaining access through fire escape windows. Most occurred between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the police reported 14 incidents.
The police deployed nearly 30 officers for nearly a week around Christmas in response to the burglaries and they ceased. However, in the past couple of weeks “2 or 3” have occurred between 48th and 52nd Street, said Captain Brian Hennessy, the commanding officer of the 108 police precinct, at the community meeting Tuesday.
Despite the Sunnyside uptick, the number of residential burglaries across the 108 precinct—which covers Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City– declined last year. However, crime across the major crime categories jumped more than 9% in 2013, compared to 2012..
Hennessy said that there were 1,327 crimes reported across the seven major crime categories in the precinct (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, stolen autos) —up from 1,209 in 2012.
The increase was largely due to an uptick in property crimes.
The biggest jump was in the number of grand larcenies. This number of incidents—which is comprised of stolen cell-phones to items taken from cars— jumped from 470 to 570. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in the number of stolen vehicles.
The number of violent crimes that were reported in 2013, however, dropped. There were four murders and 15 rapes—the exact same number as in 2012. Meanwhile, the number of robberies and felony assaults fell.
