Walnut crime easily cracked by 50th cops

1966

Criminal stupidity

1966 was the year of one of the most bungled crimes in Kingsbridge history.

Daring, but not terribly bright, thieves broke into the Agress Seed and Nut Co., located at 3441 Kingsbridge Ave., through a skylight. When the owners of the company opened for business the next day, they found typewriters, adding machines, cigarette lighters, paperweights and a petty cash box missing. Thankfully, the teenagers who had done the deed were hungry, stealing walnuts and snacking on them on the walk home. Police followed the well-marked trail to the thieves’ location.

Other stories had more lasting repercussions.

Two hundred Kingsbridge residents loaded onto buses to protest a proposed public housing project on Waldo Avenue and West 236th Street. Most were vehemently opposed to additional construction in the area, saying schools were already overcrowded and that there were not enough parking facilities available for additional residents. The project, which called for 7,500 new apartment units, was approved in May.

On the other side of the Major Deegan Expressway, residents of the Cannon Heights co-operative, located on Fort Independence Street, began organizing against the proposed construction of two 17-story buildings. Nearly half of the proposed units were to be set aside for the elderly.

Construction of a more welcome kind also began in 1966. An indoor skating rink on Broadway and West 236th Street was meant to accommodate between 800 to 1,000 skaters.