Paint ball attacks, crime

In a bizarre turn, several cars in the vicinity of 42nd St N and Sunnyside were hit with paint balls. Caroline shared a report from one of her neighbors:

This morning about 6:00 AM S—- was wakened by the sound of a paint gun (pop, pop, pop sounds). She observed a man in bicycle shorts pouring something in front of [other neighbors] driveway. She was unable to see who it was . I was awakened and we both looked out our window for a while but didn’t see anything more.

Later we found out that J— had had his bike stolen from the garage, paint had been spilled in the street in a tag type design. … A policeman was called, He took fingerprints from the can of paint. He said that someone had spray painted Dick’s Drive in from the roof of Dick’s. Also some pink or red paint was spilled further up the street.

M— also reported that he saw someone cleaning up paint on the sidewalk a couple of blocks north about 5:30 this morning. … Also the paint gun was used on [other neighbor’s] cars. No real damage but annoying just the same. We seem to be getting more than our share of this kind of behavior.

We’d say that any of that kind of behavior is more than your share, but it does seem like that area is getting hit more than others. Paola also reports another break-in in the lower Wallingford area. She tried calling the police and was given a polite response, but as empty of meaningful follow-up as our other contacts:

Just had a reasonably courteous conversation with the police. I explained that this was the second time my car had been broken into on our street and that I knew from reading a local blog that there had been a spate of car break-ins in the lower Wallingford area.

The person I spoke to urged everyone who had either had their car broken into or has witnessed something suspicious to call in so they know where to focus their resources and patrol cars. I need to get back to them tomorrow with a couple of serial numbers and will also direct them to your blog post to let them know that the thieves seemingly still have everything their own way.

I wonder if it’s worth a follow up post from you urging people to keep reporting incidents and making a fuss until something is done. I’ll also look out for the stolen items on Craigslist.

Thanks for at least providing a venue so I can vent!

Maybe that’s the problem: as long as the police think that “focusing their patrol cars” is going to solve this problem, we’re lost. What’s some cop driving around in a car going to do about these break-ins? It’s going to take detective work: finding the fence who’s taking the stolen materials, finding out who’s delivering the materials to fence, etc.

Don’t hold your breath. Our best bet is neighborhood vigilance, for what that’s worth.