Easy burglary marks

Some heists are novel and original, others are mundane, and still others are copycat heists. And then there are heists during which a business is hit by a burglar — and then hit in the same manner, at the same location and apparently by the same burglar again. And then again. 

Let that final type of heists be known as “Verizon heists.” The credit for this title goes to the Verizon Wireless store on Riverdale Avenue, which has been the target of at least four burglaries since late June.

The fist time the store was hit, burglars carried a huge safe full of electronics outside. Police arrested the suspects – only to see the store burglarized three more times, on each occasion by people who smashed the storefront with a rock, walked inside and helped themselves to electronics. A suspect in the window-smashing heists — which police say were the handiwork of the same burglar — has also been arrested, officers said this week. 

But given that the store has not so far upgraded its security or put a pull-down shutter on the storefront, as police urged it to do, this may not be the end of Verizon burglaries.  

After burglars in June carried out the safe – which cracked open and spilled electronics onto the street – some local residents shrugged off the incident. 

“A store robbery is nothing. I never get bothered. [There] are people that overreact. It has nothing to do with safety,” a Riverdale resident, Timo Hughes, told The Press at the time. “That kind of stuff doesn’t bother me.” 

It seems that the store’s administration is not excessively bothered by the burglaries either. 

“We just have a highly populated area and people are just bound to do some break-ins here and there, that’s all,” the store’s manager, Freddy Gomez, told The Press this week. 

Mr. Gomez said the store would upgrade security – eventually. The delay, according to police, appears to stem from a dispute between the franchise in Riverdale and Verizon Communications’ management about who should pay for the upgrade. 

By the time the store was hit the fourth time in half as many months, neighborhood reaction had expanded to a mixture of annoyance, unease, eye-rolling and the occasional giggle. 

The series of “Verizon heists” in Riverdale may be amusing, except for the fact that investigating each attack takes up a share of police resources and the fact that employees and owners of neighboring stores are increasingly concerned about their own safety. 

On a late night this week, the Verizon storefront – clean with some newly replaced glass following recent burglaries – looked out at the dark and nearly deserted street and offered a clear view inside, unobstructed by a pull-down shutter. A massive display of smartphones in the store was illuminated by spot lights. 

The Press would like to suggest another addition to the store’s décor. Perhaps a trendy neon arrow, pointing to the location of the safe, would further complement the design.