Photo: QueensPost
March 26, 2014 By Christian Murray
The rash of residential burglaries that has plagued Sunnyside in recent months has largely subsided.
The north side of Sunnyside was subject to 16 burglaries in December and remained stubbornly high at the beginning of the year.
However, in the past month, there were just two burglaries reported on the north side of Queens Blvd, with one on 43rd Street (bet. Skillman and 43rd Ave.) and the other on the Woodside border at 53rd Street (between Skillman and 43rd Ave.), according to Captain Brian Hennessy, commander of police precinct 108.
There were no burglaries reported in Sunnyside Gardens, which was a hotspot last summer until an arrest was made in August.
Meanwhile, on the south side of Queens Blvd, Captain Hennessy said the number was two. The burglary rate in this section of Sunnyside/Woodside has been fairly constant in the past year– experiencing no significant uptick.
Hennessy said he couldn’t say for sure what was behind the decrease—other than saying it was a confluence of factors. “We have had a big presence there,” he said. Furthermore, “We have arrested burglary recidivists on other crimes,” he said, which may play a part.
Hennessy said some of the burglars have also started to target houses/apartments around 69th and 70th Streets, as well as on the Woodside/Maspeth border. There has been an increase in activity in these areas.
Hennessy said that the number of reported crimes in the precinct (which covers Sunnyside, Woodside & LIC) dropped 7% in the past month, compared to the same period a year ago. There have been no murders this year.
