April 30, By Christian Murray
Two men broke into Vernon Wine & Liquor last Thursday and raided the ATM machine.
Vanessa Conway, the store manager, said the men used a crow bar to get through the front door and only managed to get their hands on $60.
“They went straight for the ATM and luckily for us we hadn’t filled it up,” Conway said. Surprisingly, she said, the men did not steal any of the liquor sitting on the shelves.
“I guess they freaked out when all our alarms went off, and so they took off out of the store,” she said. “They were very bold doing this, with the police [precinct] located around the corner.”
Conway said that there was some video footage that the police were reviewing. However, it was from the cameras placed inside. “The men spray painted the outdoor cameras before they broke in,” she said.
Police precinct captain Brian Hennessy confirmed the burglary at last night’s community affairs meeting in Sunnyside. He said that the incident was an isolated case and that there hadn’t been any other burglaries like this in Hunters Point recently.
Hennessy said that burglaries—both residential and commercial—had declined throughout the precinct—which covers LIC, Sunnyside & Woodside–in the past month.
Eleven had been reported in April, compared to 17 to the same period in 2013.
