Open-Door Policy in the Heights Inviting Thieves?
Yesterday morning Brooklyn Heights Blog had a post regarding an email sent out by Judy Stanton, the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, about how there had been five daytime burglaries in the neighborhood in the previous four days, and all of them involved thieves entering unlocked houses. City Room picked up on the…
Yesterday morning Brooklyn Heights Blog had a post regarding an email sent out by Judy Stanton, the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, about how there had been five daytime burglaries in the neighborhood in the previous four days, and all of them involved thieves entering unlocked houses. City Room picked up on the story and interviewed some residents of the neighborhood, where an officer was taping up hundreds of warning fliers yesterday. One person who’s lived in the area since 1984 said unlocked doors are common in the Heights: “You get used to a certain level of comfort and you don’t go back too easily. But I locked my door today.” Is America’s first suburb the only section of Brooklyn where unlocked doors are common?
Five Daytime Burglaries in Brooklyn Heights in Last Four Days [BHB]
To Burgle in Brooklyn Heights, No Heavy Equipment Needed [City Room]
Brooklyn Heights residents, especially the older folks are exceptionally aware of burglaries. Imagine living in the Heights in the 1970’s and 80’s. Thomas Wolfe described it in his “Bonfire of the Vanities” as an oasis of gentility surrounded by poverty and crime. Where would you go rob a house if you were a thief back then? This is why I am deeply suspicious of the the report. If anything, it is the young new things, who think they are moving into Mayberry that may leave their doors unlocked.
i spoke to one of the victims and he told me that he certainly locked his door. The thief jimmied his kitchen window, which is on a fire escape and left through the front door, which he unlocked from the inside.
“A silly lock isnt going to stop a burglar anyway.”
true – if they want in, they’ll get in.
I rarely lock my door if I am just running out or if I am home. A silly lock isnt going to stop a burglar anyway.
When I lived on willow street my apt door had the most elaborate locks. Assuming locks were put on when the hood was in the crapper.
When I bought my condo on east 54th in 1997, the owner couldn’t find the keys. He never locked the door in that doorman building.
I do not lock doors in other houses I have day or night while I’m there.
I also leave my deck door open while I’m here in Brooklyn..open, not just unlocked, in nice weather
It’s been a long time since I lived somewhere where I felt like I could leave the door unlocked when I was at home. Locking is just automatic.
When I lived in the Heights in the late 1990’s someone tried to rob the moving van when we were moving in. Although I grew up in a small town where no one ever locked their doors and I never had a house key until I got one for the dorm in college, I can’t imagine not locking your outside doors in NY.
I always lock the door, even when I am in. Usually double check a couple of times when I leave the apartment.
Was shocked to find my US relatives (not in NYC) left their doors unlocked when visiting a few years ago. Just seems to be asking for trouble.