Crowded 66th Precinct Meeting Hears About Moisha’s, New Scams & More

It was a packed 66th Precinct Community Council meeting, held Thursday, March 20 at Community Board 12’s headquarters on 13th Avenue. In addition to reps from many elected officials, someone from the Mayor’s Brooklyn Community Affairs unit, the DA’s office, the Shomrim, the 66th Precinct Traffic (in photo below) and Community Affairs officers, the audience was bolstered by a noisy contingent of Moisha’s Supermarket’s neighbors from East 4th Street and Avenue M (above).

They came to complain about delivery trucks blocking curbs and crosswalks round the clock; car motors running (and polluting the air) as cars waited to enter the parking lot; and a forklift — a major annoyance. Two people read their critique aloud, and later some bickered with 66th Precinct Commander Michael Deddo about the solution.

Next Meeting: The 66th Precinct is changing things up, rotating two meetings a year to the command’s extremities. It is holding its next meeting early, on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30pm at Pacificana Restaurant, a restaurant at 813 55th Street, 2nd floor, corner of 8th Ave in Chinatown.

Celebrations/Holidays: As on other occasions, the commander praised excellent teamwork among the elected officials, the police, and Sanitation District 12 for the smooth execution of Borough Park’s Purim celebration. Then he announced that Wednesday, March 26 was Bangladesh Independence Day, a holiday marking its 1971 declaration of independence from Pakistan.

Crime: The Commander said, after an initial rise in crimes for the first part of the year — up 8.7% at one point — that as of Sunday, March 16, the 66th Precinct’s year-to-date figure had dropped. Looking at the latest comp stat report, covering March 17-23, total felonies for the week were 24 vs. 27 during the same week in 2013, a drop of 11.11%; for the past 28 days there were 83 vs. 96 in same 28-day period in 2013 — a drop of 13.54%. However, year-to-date figures for 2014 vs. 2013 show the two years are very close: 243 felonies in 2014 vs. 245 in 2013, a drop of only .82%.

Traffic Enforcement: Collision injuries in the 66th Precinct are down, and so far in 2014 there have been no fatalities. Failure to yield citations are up 13% and benefit pedestrians, Commander Deddo said. According to NYPD crash data figures, the 66th had 88 injuries in December, of which 22 were pedestrians and 8 cyclists. In January, there were 67 injuries, of which 25 were pedestrians and 3 cyclists. In February there were only 38 injuries, no cyclists and 13 pedestrians.

The Green Dot MoneyPak Card Scam: The 66th Precinct is making a concerted effort to foil those who run these scams, and so far, its efforts have succeeded. There have been no new scams in March, although in total the precinct saw eight, the last one was on February 18 when the victim was robbed of $10,000.

Crime prevention Officer Michael Riomao has been on the beat visiting mosques, talking to the store mangers at Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreen’s and others — including some Green Dot MoneyPak card outlets outside the precinct — explaining how the scam works, handing out flyers, and encouraging store managers to warn people off the cards. His efforts have aborted 20 of these scams, he says.

According to Deddo, the scammers are targeting the Bangladeshi and Pakistani community, telling people they are collecting a debt owed to Con Ed or the IRS, and threatening them with deportation or cutting off their utilities if not paid. Commander Deddo emphasized that in a matter of minutes the target can lose untold sums simply by giving the Green Card MoneyPak card’s serial number to the swindler.

Both he and Officer Riomao advised never to give out any personal data to unknown persons who call on the phone. In addition, thieves have another hard-to-spot toy, Officer Riomao warned. Placing a skimmer device, which has a camera in it, in the slot where you insert your ATM card at the bank, cash machine, gas pump, supermarket, or elsewhere, the thieves can photograph your card and catch your pin number. Should you see anything unusual, call your bank (not the card) and get them to notify its security department.

Moisha’s Supermarket, located in a residential neighborhood, has grown from a neighborhood grocery store to a mammoth supermarket, which according to the delegation, has brought lots of double-parked cars, three new storage facilities blocking the view, an unlicensed forklift, and no cops there to enforce order or keep the outsiders from parking in residents’ spaces.

The commander proposed “getting the owner to sit down with this group in one room” to resolve the issue. Some, including a rabbi, seemed skeptical. Their experience with Moisha’s last year made them think that wouldn’t work. Again Deddo repeated his recommendation: “In my 27 years’ experience, summonses alone won’t fix any problem. Let’s get the owner in a room.”

Cop of the Month: On a new assignment, Officer Daniel Zhang used his training in intelligence — and his intelligence — to figure out that the busts for car break-ins were just the tip of the iceberg. Tracking stolen goods from 13 cars to one store, he still couldn’t figure out who the seller was or where the work was being done. When Officer Zhang finally solved the riddle, he found the seller had a record of 41 arrests and was working out of his apartment. Once the man was caught, the car break-ins declined.