BROOKLYN — A string of burglaries have hit Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens this month with thousands of dollars in jewelry, laptops and pricey gadgets stolen from homes in the neighborhoods, police said.
Most cases involve thieves breaking the lock of a door and entering the residence while the owner was away. From Aug. 1 through Aug. 7, there were at least seven home burglaries in the neighborhoods, according to police reports of the incidents in the 76th Precinct.
Additionally, one theft that took place overnight from Aug. 4 to 5 — in which thieves broke into the basement of a building and took more than $2,000 in tools — happened on the 100-block of Huntington Street near the Red Hook-Carroll Gardens border, police said.
Burglaries in the 76th Precinct, which includes Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and parts of Gowanus and Boerum Hill, are up by 61.7 percent in the first seven months of 2015 compared to the same time period last year.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 2 this year, there have been 76 burglaries, compared to 47 in the same period last year, according to NYPD records.
The first incident took place on or between Aug. 1 and Aug. 3 when thieves entered through the back door, which does not lock, of a home in the 300-block of Smith Street and stole a $2,000 gold and pearl necklace along with $1,500 in other necklaces, according to police.
Two burglaries took place Aug. 4. In one case, thieves damaged the front door lock of the apartment in the 100-block of Sackett Street between 1:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and took a MacBook Pro, a $430 Nikon digital camera and a $250 lens, reports said.
The second incident that day happened between 2:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. in the 200-block of Baltic Street near the Boerum Hill-Cobble Hill border. The victim returned home to find a broken door lock and her laptop and jewelry missing, police said.
On Aug. 5, a witness saw thieves breaking into a Dennett Place residence with a crowbar and then leaving the scene in a U-Haul van, according to police. The burglars did not appear to take anything, according to the report.
Another Carroll Gardens resident in the 100-block of Nelson Street had his $1,200 MacBook Air stolen on Aug. 6 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., police said. There was no forced entry into the home, according to the report.
On the same day, thieves entered a Union Street apartment by removing the air conditioner unit from a rear window near the fire escape between 5:30 a.m. and 5:50 a.m. They fled out of the same window with a MacBook laptop, a Louis Vuitton wallet and miscellaneous cards, police said.
The most recent case took place Aug. 7 in the 400-block of Hicks Street. The victims came home to find a broken lock on their front door and more than $10,000 in camera, lenses and expensive digital equipment missing.
Thieves also appear to have taken a cow-shaped piggy bank worth $100 and jewelry, according to the police report.
As of Monday, police said there were no arrests in those burglaries and it was not immediately clear whether the burglary cases were related.
In other precinct action for the week, police arrested Johnny Davis, 52, on Aug. 7 for attempting to cut the chain wrapped around a bicycle and a pole with a bolt cutter, officials said.
Davis was charged with criminal posession of burglar's tools, criminal mischief and criminal possession of stolen property, prosecutors said. Davis' attorney said she was not yet able to comment on the matter.
