Apr 23, 2008 7:05 pm US/Eastern
Car Break-Ins Plague Upper West Side
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Residents along a stretch of the Upper West Side are on edge after a rash of car break-ins have occurred over the past week.
By Wednesday afternoon, only one of the cars hit in the spree was still parked on the street, but broken glass was evident from the seven cars struck overnight on Amsterdam between 99th and 100th streets, and around the corner.
"It's disgusting. It's an unsafe feeling," said Nicole Moore, whose car was vandalized by the suspects. "You don't feel like walking here or parking your car here. You feel violated."
Moore said another car was broken into last Thursday, before hers on Friday, two more on Saturday, and one each on Sunday and Monday. Then five were hit Tuesday, before Wednesday's seven victimized vehicles, most of them in front of or along the sides of St. Michael's Episcopal Church. One might the Global Positioning Systems in the cars might be taken, but not the case for most cars.
"In our case it was a GPS system, but everyone else says nothing was stolen," said Moore. "One car broken into had a tape deck [taken]."
Another car had intentionally been left unlocked because the owner knew of the break-ins. It's a problem nearly everyone in the neighborhood knows about, even Frank Contreras, a construction worker from across the street, was aware.
"This is a bad deal. Too bad the police are right there and can't do anything abut it," said Contreras.
Even with the 24th precinct house just a half-block away, the station was apparently still no deterrent.
In this age of surveillance cameras, no such luck at St. Michael's Church, which hovers over the crime scene. The building doesn't have a single camera installed.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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