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Flushing Meadows Park Snack Shop Burglarized 3 Times Since August Opening

By Katie Honan | October 14, 2014 7:44am
 The Ederle Terrace Snack Shop opened Aug. 1 and has been robbed three times since, according to the NYPD. 
Flushing Meadows Snack Shop Robbed
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CORONA — Maybe they had the munchies.

A newly opened lakeside cafe in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was burglarized twice in one week, with the suspects fleeing with armfuls of candy, ice cream and drinks — including meal supplement Ensure —according to the NYPD and the owner.

It was the third time the Ederle Terrace Snack Shop was broken into and burglarized since opening Aug. 1 at Meadow Lake, according to police and owner Baig Sedeeq, who also operates the cafe at the World's Fair Marina.

Thieves first struck overnight between Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, taking approximately $1,800 worth of candy, energy drinks and a speaker for the shop's sound system, according to the NYPD.

The register was also broken, and $170 was taken, the NYPD said.

Thieves broke into the shop after hours between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, walking off with roughly $500 worth of snacks, according to the NYPD and the owner.

The sticky-fingered suspects likely got in by breaking the window by the soda machine, Sedeeq said.

The snack snatchers took everything from Lay's potato chips to Magnum ice cream, Red Bull, Monster energy drinks and even Ensure nutritional shakes, he said.

The shop was broken into again between Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 — and the potato chip pilferers nabbed hundreds of dollars worth of candy, gum, chips and soda from the re-stocked shelves, Sedeeq said.

Sedeeq met with officers from the 110th Precinct on Oct. 10 to find better ways to secure his shop, but said the problem is the lack of guards in the park at night.

"I was not thinking that somebody's going to break in for the soda and candy, that was a misjudgment," Sedeeq said.

He later stood guard outside his shop overnight a few times to check out the scene out of "concern."

"It's dangerous in the park, there's no security," he said. "They should have at least one or two guards once an hour around the park in a car."

A spokesman with the Parks Department said they are "working closely with the NYPD to ensure the safety of all at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park."

The borough's largest park has also been plagued with after-hours drivers who "drift" and speed in the Meadow Lake parking lot, according to police and neighbors.

The park had the highest crime rate out of any park in the city for the second quarter, according to NYPD statistics.

More recent data was not immediately available.