By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — A rash of burglaries in recent days has Chelsea-area residents worried about their safety.
Nine burglaries have occurred over the past two weeks, primarily within the blocks between 17th and 21st streets and 7th and 10th avenues, according to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Homes where residents appear to be on vacation are the principal targets, with perpetrators gaining access via fire escapes or pried open front doors, the speaker said.
Chelsea mother Jasmine Smith, 26, said that she had stopped letting her daughter walk to school by herself because she worries about crime.
"Now you don't even want to open the door for a guy in a UPS uniform," Smith said.
Lucia Webster said her husband, a building superintendent on West 17th Street, had already taken some safety precautions at their home.
"Of course I'm worried. I have a child. I have two," Webster said.
Police are currently trying to ascertain whether the burglaries are the work of one criminal or several, said Quinn, who passed out fliers Monday morning in Chelsea warning neighbors about the spate of crimes.
"We're asking people to be extra aware if they're going to be away," Quinn said, emphasizing that people should avoid leaving stacks of unopened newspaper in front of their doors. "All we know is we want it to stop, and we want to help residents do everything they can to make it stop."
As he helped to pass out the fliers Monday, Community Board 4 member Robert Trentlyon, said that last week, his wife was among the victims.
She had an expensive new pair of New Balance sneakers snatched from the mat in front of their apartment door, inside a building on West 21st Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. Although the Trentlyon's have lived on the block for 45 years, this is the first time they've worried about theft.
"She was very upset," Trentlyon said, explaining that he was helping to flier near P.S. 11, where their granddaughter attends school, in order "to assuage her fear."
The NYPD's 10th precinct has gone door-to-door to warn residents in the area bounded by West 15th and West 22nd Streets and 7th and 10th avenues, according to a crime alert on the back of the flier. The NYPD alert asks residents and commercial tenants to help secure their property through good lighting, strong exterior door construction, heavy-duty deadbolt locks and carefully secured windows.
For Trentlyon, the crime string is indicative of changes in the area.
"I keep telling people, no one would ever waste time burglarizing in Chelsea because no one had anything worth stealing," Trentlyon said. "Now that a lot of money has come into the neighborhood, we're prime targets."
