Crime watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Parks and WreckAt 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, a 56-year-old male employee of the NYC Parks Department parked his work vehicle in a garage near the boat basin at the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and West 79th Street. Returning at 7:30 the next morning he saw the vehicle had been broken into, and a number of tools, including wrenches, drills, a circular saw, grinders and a cordless toolkit, with a total value of $2,055, were missing. At least one of the truck’s door locks had been removed and damaged. Apparently, this was just one of a number of vehicles that had been broken into on Riverside Drive that week, police said.

Motorcycle StolenAt 11 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7, a 45-year-old man parked his BMW R 1200 GS motorcycle in front of 149 West 75th St. When he returned the next day at 1:30 p.m., the bike was missing. A search of the neighborhood proved fruitless. Apparently, he had not locked the vehicle when he parked it. The BMW’s value was put at $14,500.

Vehicle Broken IntoPolice have been tracking a pattern of vehicle break-ins in the area. At 12:15 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7, a 40-year-old Union City, N.J., woman parked her vehicle in front of 529 Amsterdam Ave. When she returned the following morning at 11 a.m., the back passenger’s-side window was smashed in and several of her items were missing, including a laptop, a tablet, a duffel bag, a cellphone, property worth a total of $4,200. Also gone was $200 in cash, she told police.

Plumbing the DepthsCertain thieves sure have a lot of brass. At 2:44 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, an employee of Almar plumbing of Hicksville, N.Y., finished installing brass plumbing traps on several floors of 639 West 59th St., which is under construction. When he returned the next Thursday afternoon, 89 of the 99 traps he had installed were gone. The stolen traps were valued at $4,000.

Bike StolenAn area resident witnessed a thief stealing her bicycle. At 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, a 40-year-old woman chained her black Tern Eclipse 20 to a small fence in front of the West Elm store at 1870 Broadway. When she came out of the store 15 minutes later she saw a man in his 20s speeding northbound on Broadway on her bike. A search of the neighborhood turned up nothing. The bike is valued at $2,500.