Car Break-Ins Up; Felony Crime Down by 30%

Deputy Inspector Michael Deddo, center, named two Anti-Crime unit officers, Orazio Boccadifuoco, left, and Joseph Wright, right, the “Cops of the Month” for their 2-hour 12:30am vigil in pouring rain. Their watch paid off. They arrested perps responsible for 4 “breaks.”

The new year saw felony crime drop by almost 30% in the 66th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Michael Deddo said at its Community Council meeting Thursday, February 21. Except for car break-ins, listed on the weekly CompStat report as grand larceny auto — the last 28-day figure saw them climb by 28.6% compared to last year.

Worried local politicians and community leaders are eager for the cops to do something. The precinct has made 11 arrests in two weeks for car break-ins, which were spread over eight of the precinct‘s 13 sectors. The amounts stolen are often piddling, “barely worth pennies,“ Deddo said. GPS units are the exception.

“No one age or race characterizes these guys,” Deddo added, saying some are his age. “They could be kids looking for prescription drugs or career criminals.” Addiction is the one attribute many share.

Two Shomrim volunteers, Messieurs Rosenberg and Friedman, discovered two young men checking door handles on January 31 as they walked down the street. “How many car handles did they pull before we caught them?” Commander Deddo wondered.

The Commander’s advice: Be sure your car is locked — and doublecheck you actually did it. Leave nothing on the seat, not even an empty bag. That’s reason enough to break the car window, to check out its contents. The thief may have walked away empty-handed, but it’s you who will pay to fix it.

It’s been a busy — and often, delirious — month at the 66. For the cops, the yellow school bus strike’s had a fringe benefit. With fewer rolling buses, traffic flowed smoothly, eliminating the usual bottlenecks each afternoon as all the precinct’s 89 private schools and 34 public schools dismissed their students at the same time. On the other hand, cops, here and elsewhere, were assigned to watch the yellow buses at depots in their precincts.

The Chinese New Year event, The Year of the Snake, was celebrated Sunday, February 17 on 8th Ave. Plenty of time working with community organizations and senior centers went into the planning so the snakes, or their well-wishers, could happily slither along. Then last weekend, the cops were out until 4am to help costumed and masked Purim celebrants find their way home.

The precinct has reportedly cut its response time by almost two minutes — besting others in the borough, D.I. Deddo said modestly. Should fortune, or the snake, smile on the 66, it might help figure out how to bank those extra minutes and put them toward an overdue full night’s sleep.