A gate thief ? Yes, yes. Right here in Carroll Gardens. Let me tell you all about it:
On Monday, I received a call from a friend who lives on President Street. She and her husband were busy working in front of their house when they noticed a homeless-looking man milling about their neighbor's house. My friend observed him for a while, but since the man was just standing there, she went back into her own house. On a hunch, she looked out of her window after a few minutes. By then, the man was nowhere in sight and neither was the neighbor's iron gate.
Pretty upset (and disgusted,) my friends decided to take a walk to look for the man. They guessed that he was going to try to get some cash for the gate at the scrap metal yard on Smith, close to the B.Q.E.. Sure enough, they caught up to him at 3rd Street and Smith. He was carrying the gate on his back. Confronted by my friend's husband and by some choice words, the man put the gate down, but not before hissing that he knew where they lived...
Triumphantly, my friends carried the gate back to their neighbor's house where it is now safely stored and locked under the stoop.
Is this a trend? Just in case, my friend and I both alerted the 76th precinct and talked to Community Affairs Officer Paul Grudzinski. Of course there is no proof that the scrap metal yard on Smith would have accepted the gate, but we are rather concerned. The value of the iron is meaningless. However, the gate is original to the house and would have been very, very expensive to replace.
Since we don't all have such vigilant super-hero neighbors, be aware that this is going on in Carroll Gardens in broad daylight and watch your gate...
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6 comments:
I do not think this is a trend . this is one of the safest area's in NYC. There are people out there and looking to make a buck scraping metal. To me it looks as if that gate was not welded on it looks as if it was just sitting on top of the post. We all should watch each other as closely as these neighbors watched each others houses.
The gate was not welded on, but the homeowner is taking care of that detail when the gate goes back up.
This is a nice neighborhood and safe too. However, I heard that just a few weeks ago, the abandoned house on President between Smith and Hoyt was stripped of its entire railing in the middle of the night...heavy posts and all.
I noticed that the gate was missing from 327 President St. (the boarded up house) a few weeks ago.
One day it was there and the next it was gone. Good thing that that block has "eyes" and the neighbors look out for another.
The price of scrap metal is sky high right now. Copper is almost worth it's weight in gold. These guys will take anything not bolted down. As for the scrap yards not taking it... that's a good one.
This was happening in Park Slop about 5 years ago. None of the old gates are welded on. It got so bad that folks were securing there gates with heavy chain locks.
There was a trend a while back of thieves stealing manhole covers, and I saw a clip not too long ago of thieves (around the country) stealing catalytic converters off cars for the value of the platinum inside. All recyclable metals (except probably aluminum) are worth recycling. Desperate people do this type of thing when times are tough (read: it wasn't happening when Clinton was in office).
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