PARK SLOPE — This isn't what the NYPD usually means when it talks about "broken windows" policing.
A would-be burglar broke a $50,000 Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass window while trying to sneak into a 19th-century townhouse on May 23, according to a police report.
A 61-year-old woman was asleep in a third-floor bedroom at 5:30 a.m. when she spotted the intruder standing on a ledge outside her window. The man had his hands on the window when the woman saw him, according to a criminal complaint. The prowler didn't manage to get inside the house and fell off the ledge, the police report stated. He was arrested shortly afterward, according to the police report.
The carefully restored home, on Eighth Avenue near Carroll Street, was used in the 1993 film "The Age of Innocence" and has been rented out for $18,000 a month, according to real estate blogs. It has four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, antique tapestries, fireplaces and a music room.
One bedroom is a "magnificent master suite with a steam shower and a soaking tub with a stained glass window that swings open to reveal a tree top view," according to a rental listing about the property.
Other recent crimes in the 78th Precinct include the following, with details from police reports:
► A mugger punched a 52-year-old woman in the face on May 23 at 7:20 a.m. on Flatbush Avenue near Prospect Place. The mugger took $10 in cash and a MetroCard. He was arrested shortly afterward.
► A 20-year-old Target employee was arrested May 10 after pilfering $1,859 in cash from the store's Atlantic Terminal mall location. The employee reprinted customers' receipts, scanned them as returns, then pocketed the cash.
► A man used a fake $20 bill to pay for a slice of pizza at Joe's Pizza on Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street on May 25 about 5:20 p.m. Police informed the U.S. Secret Service of the incident.
► Police nabbed a bike thief by setting up a decoy bike outside the Atlantic Center Mall on May 24 at 8:15 p.m. Officers arrested the thief after he was seen using cable cutters to slice through the bike's lock and then steal it.
► A 25-year-old woman had her iPhone stolen after she accidentally left it on a food tray at New York Methodist Hospital on May 22 at 2:05 p.m.
► A 54-year-old man has his iPhone stolen May 23 after he accidentally left it on the counter at a deli on Fourth Avenue and Union Street while he was shopping. After the man left the store, a thief was spotted on video surveillance swiping the phone.
► A black Audi A7 sedan was stolen from near Dean Street and Fourth Avenue on May 26.
Overall, major crime in the 78th Precinct has dropped 16 percent this year compared to the same period in 2015, according to the most recent statistics from the NYPD. There were 277 major crimes reported between Jan. 1 and May 22, 2016, and 333 major crimes during that period in 2015.
Editor's note: The 78th Precinct no longer provides information to the media on open cases involving major crimes such as grand larceny, robbery, rape, burglary and felony assault. Some information on those crimes can be found on the NYPD's CompStat 2.0 website and on the NYPD's NYC Crime Map.
