We have received numerous reports that our local youth have been harassing the owner White Wave Laundromat (2690 Gerritsen Ave) on Gerritsen Avenue on a daily basis. This may have been due to the recent school week off but nevertheless the laundromat seems to be a timeless target for vandals. The vandals are closing the security gates (essentially locking everyone inside) and throwing objects into the store and at the owner. People are worried that this may be a potential hate crime in the making because the owner is a Chinese woman and the vandalism does not happen when others are manning the store.
Coming in Via E-Mail:
There’s a group out roudy kids… who are continuously throwing things, and close the metal gate down on the laundrymat on the ave. The owner is a nice chinese woman, and they do it because she gets crazy when they do this. They laugh at her for cursing etc. One day last week I chased them and grabbed a kid by his coat to try and make peace for her but he just coldly laughed at me and said she’s funny that’s why they do it. Its pretty close to a hate crime but not so…one day im affraid they’re going to break the glass. It happens atleast once a day. She put up surveilance but when she calls the cops they’re already gone and all the surveilance shows is the kids jackets. One day they threw a snow ball that was strong enough to dent her car.
We will post the surveillance video if/when it is available.
Investigators used green dye to trace discharges and found that fecal matter and toilet paper from the movie theater’s septic system showed up in the creek as recently as this year.
These are the four individuals :
Craig Novoa (top left), David Matalon (top right), Simon Shin (bottom right) and Alex Spivak were hit with felony environmental crime charges.
Hynes said the four men and their companies, shared a sewage pipe that they were responsible for maintaining. “Their private sewer system regularly broke down, flooded the parking lot, created noxious odors and regularly deposited large quantities of raw sewage directly into the waters of Shell Bank Creek,” said Hynes.
The alleged polluters were warned repeatedly since 2003 that the pipes were leaking. Regal Cinemas repaired the pipe in 2009 and water quality improved substantially. TGI Fridays and the bagel shop are accused of dumping untreated waste grease and oil into the creek. Deauville Marina is also accused of dumping raw sewage from a outhouse into the creek.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years and fines up to $75,000 for each day the pollution was discharged.
Regal Cinemas lawyer Austin Campriello told City Room “Regal categorically denies any guilt,” “Regal spent close to $2 million to fix that leaky sewer line, and we believe it’s fixed.
As much as it pains GerritsenBeach.net to bring it up: All weekend long kids were throwing rocks at people, buses and cars again from Seba Avenue Park.
One resident even tried to reason with the kids:
Tonight I was at the skate park…a group of teenagers ages ranging 13-15 were throwing rocks, scooters, and pretty much anything else they could at busses, car services, and houses across from the skate park….I told them what they are doping is absolutely dumb…but they dont listen. I called 911, and no response. They continued to terrorize for almost two hours. No one cares. Sucks man. This neighborhood is funny, the parents dont give a !@#$ , and apparently neither do the police. Ridiculous..
They were throwing rocks at the bus shelter while a young man was sitting there waiting for the bus with his girlfriend. If it would have broke. you could have killed one of them. Thats also very unintelligent of you all.
Ive never once in my life felt the need to call 911. However tonight, even I felt like i was in danger,and thats !@#$%^& up. thats not what this neighborhood is about. People shouldnt have to worry about a$$hole kids throwing rocks at them in Gerritsen Beach. Not smart guys. Unsafe, not cool, and totally stupid. it’s time for a reality check. Your generation is !@#$%^ up, and thats sucks cause you are all unfortunately the future of this neighborhood. Things arent looking up. =(
We have also heard on good authority that one of the Radio Control Airplane guys saw a kid that he thinks was involved in throwing rocks at his vechile and started to yell at him. The kid ran home got his father, and a how dare you accuse my kid started and the Airplane Guy left for fear of retaliation.
Editorial note: People have accused GerritsenBeach.net of “creating” these problems saying that they do not exist, have never existed and only exist because we wrote about it. They do exist, we are just the messenger. We hate these stories as much as you do because they are horrible to hear about and more horrible to know that it’s our kids. We only bring these stories to your attention to make you aware of what is happening in your community. However, If you have ever seen any historical Gerritsen Beach paper you would know that the issues we face today are the same issues that have been around since the year of the flood. We are judged on how we react to the situation. We have always intend to show the great things of the neighborhood and will continue to do so. We will show the “bad” when it becomes a neighborhood issue.
On Labor Day, we had a shoplifter in our store. People have seen him around the neighborhood, even though he is not from GB and he has shopped in our store before. I just want to get the word out so the people will be on the lookout for him and he doesn’t steal from anyone else.
Remember the Bevy Court Robberies? Well the police did catch a suspect.
The good news was that the burglar who robbed a home on Bevy Ct. recently was apprehended and jailed. He was traced to Brownsville, thanks to an alert citizen!
There have been numerous reports floating around the comments here and Facebook about an incident yesterday in Seba Avenue Park.
The incident was that either one or multiple kids from out of the beach tried to intimidate a Beach kid out of his cell phone and there may or may not have been a weapon flashed.
That’s all the information we have at this time. We welcome you to update us all in the comment below. We will update you as we try and get more information.
This week, next to the brand new Olga’s Garden is a very large area literally destroyed by Quad/ATV tracks.
This is a disgrace to the neighborhood and destroys the arguments that local Quad and Dirt Bike riders have brought up on Comments and various meetings.
The only way to stop this is if you see a Dirtbike/Mini-Bike/Quad/ATV riding on the Avenue or Parkland call 911 immediately.
I know people won’t like it but here it is: There seems to be a rash of vehicle break-ins and robbery reportings going around facebook and the comments over the last few days.
The vehicle break-ins involve mostly unlocked vehicles. As reported previously these thefts resulted in cash, iPods, GPS tracking systems and other items being stolen.
Please report suspicious vehicles or persons in the neighborhood by calling 911. Please give the operator a physical description, what direction they were headed, as much information as possible if they are driving the vehicle’s license number, if possible.
Here is what has been making the rounds:
Please be aware that there are people breaking into houses and cars in Gerritsen Beach..Lock all your doors and call the police if you see anything suspicious..This has been going on for a couple of weeks now and is getting out of control..Something MUST be done about this..Enough is enough already!!!
The recent break-ins were on bevy between channel & devon. The lady tried to break into two of my cars. One she took change out of & spilled pepsi all over my seat, the other cars alarm triggered and she went down the block towards Devon ave. When I realized what had just happened I chased her around the block, where she told me in a drunken stupor and I quote” there was a big truck on gerritsen ave, that’s why, sorry about that”, so I smiled and said ” oh alright, no problem”. I continued to follow her without her knowing, and saw her try a handle on Celeste court between the same avenues. I then asked her where the truck was. She then said that was her car, and I being fed up exclaimed that I knew that wasn’t her car( She was infront of my friends house) and that I knew she had just broken into mine because there was spilled pepsi all over the seat, and she just happened to be holding a beverage of the same variety. She then broke down, started crying and said ” yea, the truth is, is that I’m homeless and I was looking for a place to sleep”. More words were exchanged and then my parents showed up, so I went back home to finish watching “The Doors” with my brother. Basically she looks like a frail 45-50 year old woman. Watch out for her, oh yea and she comes in the neighborhood from around ave W, because all the cars she attempted to rob trace back in a line over to that way.
There was also a robbery in the new section, at 45 Hazel Ct. A male black attemped to break in through a window and was scared off by a neighbor who witnessed the attempted break in.
The other incident in which my neighbors house was robbed, was a separate incident which happened in the morning a few days ago. It happened early in the morning at a time when the elderly woman was still sleeping but others were up going to school/ work. There is construction going on on my block. The only thing out of the ordinary that day, and I say this speaking the truth, was that some of the work crew witnessed a skinny, young, African American male, whom no one on the block had ever seen before, park his car up on the side walk. That’s it. A few of the guys saw him get back in his car, when he nervously said “Sorry for parking here”. He then fidgeted around with his keys for a moment and drove off. I don’t want to draw any false conclusions, but …
Cameras! Cameras! Cameras! & Youtube! No matter what the crime you commenters always demand cameras. Well in this case you got one.
Vandals were caught on security camera defacing property on Gerritsen Avenue. They were marking up the newish buildings It appears as though they knew a camera was watching them, one looks right into the camera then puts his arms up to try and cover what the other person is doing (30 second mark).
The video does cut out a few times but stick with it and you will witness them marking up the building.
After speaking with Mr. Lawrence Majors our “newish” Parks Manager, he is new to our park but came from Sheepshead/Brighton/Coney Parks area. He stated that GerritsenBeach.net’s pictures and coverage made them aware of the situation and they plan to remove the debris.
Although as of this time, they have not physically gone back-weeds to look, they are aware of what and how much debris is back there from the pictures. They are planning to “investigate” and remove the debris after the area drys out. They will go back there with a few front end loaders and containers to remove the debris.
The investigation goes like this: When they get back there, if they can find a consistent address in the debris, they may be able to issue a summons. However, if they investigate and the person moved they are out of luck. In terms of finding these disgusting people I think our chances are low.
As for the keys…There are approximately 5 Gates that lead back weeds(not including Burnett): Channel, Soccer Field, Gotham, Cryus, Seba. Park’s Manager Lawrence Major’s plans on changing the locks and keys ASAP and to change them every so often, they have not been changed in approximately 5 years. When asked about who is in possession of the keys, so this wont happen again, only the FDNY and Park he said are in possession. It must be noted that the Vollies and the members of the GBCares board also have keys to open these gates and they should be included when the locks/keys are changed out.
As soon as the Parks Press office returns our phone calls we will be putting up more information.
Look what was found in the debris! A store for rent number.
As it stands right now, we should have an answer, possibly with a meeting from at least one of these agency’s: DEC, Parks, Sanitation Enforcement next week.
Back weeds, directly behind the 8-track, there are 4 piles/strips of construction debris. It is all construction debris that was dumped out of a dumpster. It looks to be mainly roofing material but it basically looks like an entire house was gutted, put into dumpsters, then dumped back weeds. It’s literally everything you would see in a gutted house including a kitchen sink, awning, and satellite dish.
The area in question, which everyone should see, is behind the 8-track. After a little bit of walking around you can see the vehicle trail through the weeds. It appears that a vehicle entered the 8-track from the main trail from where they could of entered pretty much through any gate.
Which begs the question: How did they get through the gates? Who has responsibility for these gates? The city? A local organization? Then, more importantly who committed the act?
Seriously! This is truly horrible. Not just because they dumped all of this garbage but because you have this strange feeling that it could be “locals”. What kind of person dumps this stuff? Good luck to them when the investigation starts.
We will be updating this story as more updates come out.
We’ve been getting emails and message about numerous car break-ins on Aster court.
They have been stealing anything they can see.
It’s been every weekend for the last three weekends. The thieves are going into cars via open windows, unlocked doors, etc. Apparently one of the first weekends of this spree, a 12 year old was caught red handed in someones vehicle and was given “a good talking to”.
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