GLENDALE — The officers at the 104th Precinct didn't get to know Wilbur Hoffman through the best of circumstances.
Hoffman, a World War II veteran, lived alone in a house off Catalpa Avenue and was burglarized and beaten multiple times over the past two years as men broke into his home and stole lock boxes filled with his life savings from his career repairing buses for NYC Transit.
Hoffman never married or had children, and while his neighbors took care of him — driving him to his surgeries or buying the Daily News and leaving it at his door — officers from the precinct took him under wing as one of their own.
"We befriended him, got to know him, and inducted him into the 104th Precinct family," Executive Officer Gregory Mackie said.
"He became like a grandpa of the precinct," added Det. Charles Sadler.
So when Hoffman passed away Jan. 22, at the age of 91, the officers immediately started making calls to ensure he had a proper goodbye.
"If there was anything we could do for him in that short time we were around him, in his last years, we would do it," Mackie said.
Officers from the precinct coordinated obtaining the necessary paperwork from Hoffman's home to make it possible for him to get a military burial.
Hoffman was laid to rest at a service Friday at the George Werst Funeral Home — which has donated space to dozens of indigent veterans.
The city's veterans' affairs department assisted in his funeral and burial at a nearby cemetery. Members of the Queens County American Legion gave him a proper military service, saluting him as his flag-draped casket was brought out by the NYPD's Honor Guard. Photos of Hoffman when he was a young sailor were on display along with his discharge papers and his high school diploma.
The funeral was the latest outpouring of compassion from the precinct towards Hoffman, as officers spent the past two years checking up on him and investigating the violent incidents — which they still hope to solve.
After the brutal burglaries the precinct installed security, and officers working the overnight shift parked outside his home.
During one of the burglaries the suspects took off with Hoffmann's military medals, so the precinct's then-Commanding Officer, Deputy Inspector Christopher Manson, called the government to have them replaced.
The precinct's current head, Captain Mark Wachter, paid for lights and panic alarms out of his own pocket, Mackie said.
Wilbur Hoffman being visited by members of the 104th Precinct in Glendale. (104th Precinct)
Officers would visit for meals, spending hours talking about everything from the United States Navy to current events.
"He was sharp as a knife," Det. Sadler said.
Hoffman was born in nearby Bushwick in 1924, and enlisted in the United States Navy when he was 18.
He was on the USS Henderson when it arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for support in 1943, according to his military documents.
Hoffman spent time on ships near Shanghai, China and Okinawa, Japan before eventually returning to his family home on Halsey Street. He later moved to Glendale, living with his sister and her husband.
He worked for New York City Transit, bending his small frame for hours to repair big buses.
"We are Mr. Hoffman's family, the 104th Precinct," Mackie told those assembled at Hoffman's funeral. "And we will always be his family."
