QUEENS — The Grinch has come to Forest Hills.
Several residents have become the victims of package thefts from the lobbies of their Forest Hills buildings as the holiday season looms — including a set of children's clothes meant to be a gift.
One of the residents posted a video on YouTube, recorded in Forest Hills Gardens on Nov. 29, showing a deliveryman dropping off a package on her doorstep.
Several hours later, a man walked up to her door and took the package. In a message the victim sent out to other residents, she said that the package contained "holiday outfits for children."
She also wrote that she later found the torn packaging in her neighbors' shrubs, but the contents were gone.
That incident, according to the 112th Precinct, which covers Forest Hills and Rego Park, was not reported.
But the precinct, whose officials warned residents about thieves targeting shoppers during the holiday season at a recent community council meeting, received reports about three other similar incidents in November.
On Nov. 13, a woman discovered that a package containing a jacket had already been delivered to her apartment building, near Jewel Ave. and 108th Street, police said. She later found the opened package in the laundry room. The jacket, worth about $70, was gone, police said.
Three days later, another resident, who was waiting for electronics she ordered online, checked the tracking number and found out that the package had already been delivered and left on her doorstep. But the woman said she had never received it, police said.
On Nov. 19, a FedEx deliveryman reported that a package was taken from a hand truck that he left unattended while he made another delivery near Austin Street and 72nd Road, police said.
According to the precinct, the incidents are not related. In October, no such incidents were reported in the area, police said.
