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Partly Cloudy Village hit with mini crime spree
No one hurt as five homes in tight radius are burglarized
Rockville Centre and Nassau County police are investigating a cluster of burglaries that took place in occupied homes within an eighth of a mile of each other between the early hours of Nov. 12 and the previous evening.
Although residents were at home during each of the entries —which police said were made through unlocked doors and windows — no confrontations between burglars and homeowners were reported.
According to detectives, someone entered two homes on Brower Avenue — the first in a house directly opposite St. James Place at 5:15 a.m. on Nov. 12, when a resident heard the burglars and called police and the third, a few doors south, that was reported at 6:40 a.m.
Police learned of the second burglary in a Raymond Street residence at 6:40 a.m. and the fourth in a home on Morris Avenue, north of Lakeview Avenue, at 7:45 the same morning.
Police said the burglars stole cash, video games and a laptop computer.
An attempt to get into a N. Forest Avenue home, also north of Lakeview Ave., that police say was reported to them at 10:30 a.m. had been aborted — a rear screen door to the home was pulled off but the back door remained closed and locked.
These burglaries follow several early-morning break ins at homes on Linden Street and Burtis Avenue, and an attempt to enter another home on Linden Street. There was also a recent string of burglaries in the Nottingham Road area last month.
“We take all criminal activity very seriously and we are working to apprehend those responsible for the recent burglaries. A cluster of burglaries such as we saw last week is likely the work of a single individual going from house to house looking for ‘soft’ targets where there are unlocked doors or windows,” said Police Commissioner Jack McKeon, in a written statement.
“Despite what some residents might be feeling, crime in Rockville Centre is very low,” McKeon said. “It will never be zero, but we are far better off this year with 53 commercial and residential burglaries by the end of October than we were in 2000 when we had 80, or in 1990 when we had 116 at the same point in the year.
