By REUVEN BLAU and BRAD HAMILTON
May 11, 2008
Celebrities beware - apartment burglaries have surged in the posh West Village.
The area, home to A-listers such as actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Graydon Carter, has experienced a 36 percent rise in home break-ins, with 72 reported so far this year - up from 53 during the same period last year, according to NYPD data.
And the problem worsened last month, when the 6th Precinct - which serves the area from West Houston Street north to 14th Street and from the Hudson River east to Broadway - recorded 18 burglaries.
That precinct recorded only 10 during April 2007.
Police sources said there wasn't one particular crook or group wreaking all the havoc.
"There's a spike, but nothing of a pattern," the insider said.
Drug users from Washington Square Park have apparently targeted the apartment buildings nearby, cops said.
Police warned residents to secure their doors and take other security measures to protect their pads.
"They told us that there has been a big spike in break-ins in the last month," said one resident of 136 W. 4th St., referring to the cops' warnings.
"They told us to be careful who we were letting into the building."
There were two recent thefts in his building, where burglars climbed up the fire escape, he added. "I know one [victim] had left their window open."
But total burglaries decreased 6.8 percent citywide, from 4,844 to 4,514, based on the latest figures.
While homeowners and residents may be a bit jittery about neighborhood break-ins, robberies have declined sharply.
Last year at this time there were 63 robberies in the precinct, compared to 47 this year, a dip of 24 percent.
Felony assaults were down too with 36 felony assaults last year compared to 23 this year for the same period, a drop of 36.1 per cent.
Overall crime for the 6th Precinct in the seven major categories - murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, grand larceny and auto theft - fell 3.4 percent so far this year, compared to the same period in 2007.
A department spokesman downplayed what he termed a "short-term spike" in burglaries, noting that the 6th Precinct has seen that crime decline 21 percent in the last two years.
