On Monday morning, ILTUWS received a tip about a string of car break-ins along Riverside Drive from West 96th Street to West 102nd Street. According to an NYPD spokesperson, six complaint reports had been filed between February 23 and 24; when ILTUWS visited the area, we counted seven break-ins and found shattered glass left behind from the damaged vehicles. One neighbor estimated that about 20 cars had been broken into over the weekend.
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We also spotted one window that appeared to have been struck but did not fully break. Police said the tool used to break the windows remains unknown as the investigation continues. They also stated that there are currently no descriptions of the perpetrator(s) and, as of now, no items have been reported stolen.
“When it costs $900 for a parking garage, it doesn’t really bother me,” said one Upper West Side local wearing a Cornell sweatshirt as he got out of a silver Lexus on West 101st Street and Riverside Drive. He told us he hadn’t heard about the break-ins along the street but said that in his 30 years on the Upper West Side, car break-ins weren’t a big deal. However, he noted that his car had been spray-painted with orange paint two years ago, and his last break-in was around five to seven years ago.
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“There’s more that way,” said a young female local who was out walking her dog and noticed us checking things out. She told us that cars on the east side of the street were also broken into over the weekend, and while we didn’t see any, we did come across glass strewn along Riverside Drive. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was plenty of parking available along this stretch.
“It’s insane,” said the woman. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” She noted that her car would not be parked in this area for the foreseeable future.
A senior citizen out jogging became distracted by the string of break-ins and began looking around for clues. “I’m not sure the police can do anything,” said the man with a white mustache. “It’s tough when it’s these side windows, too. The parts can be hard to get, and you have to take the whole door off.” The gentleman felt that having your windshield busted was easier to deal with, as it’s only a few hundred dollars and easy to fix.
“That’s why there’s so much parking available right now,” he quipped, pointing to the glass from a space where a car had been.
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There were two above 104th. West side. I thought I counted a total of 10.
My car has been vandalized several times. Spray paint, stolen wiper blades and stolen airbag. Perhaps cameras are in order and this is an ongoing problem
Who the heck is paying $900/month? Close to $400 or $450.
Who remembers the days where car radios were detachable and we took them with us when we parked so that the windows wouldn’t get broken ,?
They voted for it.
Could you be more vague or are you responding to the voices in your head?
“They” voted for “it”? Gee, I thought you right-wingers weren’t fans of pronouns…
The $900/month garage “I don’t really care if my car is broken into” guy sounds like a douche nozzle or finance bro whose sentiments are so outlier as to be useless.