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NYPD Braces for Influx of Trick-Or-Treaters and Egg Throwers in Queens

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | October 23, 2015 4:14pm | Updated on October 25, 2015 9:28pm
 Forest Hills Gardens homeowners put a lot of effort to decorate their homes for Halloween.
Forest Hills Gardens homeowners put a lot of effort to decorate their homes for Halloween.
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DNAinfo.com/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, even more trick-or-treaters than usual could descend on Forest Hills Gardens this year, prompting the local police precinct to send out a special unit to calm neighbors worries.

Burns Street, between Ascan Avenue and Union Turnpike, has become "Halloween Central," attracting thousands of kids every year, according to local residents.

The affluent area has been known as a go-to spot for Halloween candy. Numerous homeowners also put up elaborate decorations in their homes and gardens including tombstones, skeletons and spider webs.

The Forest Hills Gardens Corporation usually cordons off the area around Burns Street to block cars from streets crowded with children, but one resident was concerned the measures would not be enough to keep kids safe with all of the extra crowds expected this year.

“I’m worried there is going to be more children,” said one resident, who did not want to be identified, at a 112th Precinct Community Council meeting earlier this week.

In addition to safety concerns, locals also fear that more egg-throwing teenagers may also show up in the neighborhood than usual.

Deputy Inspector Judith Harrison, the commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, said her staff will be prepared.  

“Because it is a Saturday, and it’s not a school day, you may have more people out and about doing things that they don’t need to do,” she said at the meeting.

Harrison also said the precinct will have “a small contingency of personnel that will just be assigned to what we are calling a 'Halloween detail' and they will be looking for the egg throwers and the different mischievous acts that go on and will definitely take a look at the traffic situation over there.”