Crime

Vandalism continues in Mill Brook

Police field more than a dozen reports of smashed windows in past two months

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Mill Brook Civic Association leaders met with the Nassau County Police Department on July 28 to discuss a spate of vehicle vandalism in recent months.

Marc Tenzer, the association’s outgoing president, said that police had agreed to step up patrols through the neighborhood. He added that at least five incidents in which vehicles in Mill Brook had their windows smashed had been reported to police, and that he had heard of others that were not reported.

“People think that if they report it to their insurance company, it’s reported,” Tenzer said. “If it’s not reported to police, the police don’t know about it.”

Peter Hunter, the new president of the association, said he had found spent CO2 cartridges, which are used in BB guns, on the ground following one incident, on Cloverfield Road South. Hunter said he was concerned that the vandalism might be just one piece of a larger pattern of petty crimes residents are seeing this summer.

Jess Osterer’s car was one of the first to be damaged in Mill Brook, along with another vehicle down the block from him. He said he parked his Mercedes on the street in front of his house on Cloverfield Road on July 1 when he got home shortly after 9 p.m. The next morning, he found the rear windshield shattered.

Osterer said he now keeps his car in his driveway. “What bothers me is it’s a very unsafe feeling to leave cars around these days, being that it’s a pattern,” he said.

In addition to damaged windows, residents have reported unlocked vehicles being entered and “trashed,” Hunter said.

According to Nassau County police, there were 15 vehicle window breaks and 32 car break-ins reported in Valley Stream in June and July. There were 26 window breaks and 159 car break-ins in the 4th Precinct in the same time period.