CROWN HEIGHTS — Two burglars hit the office of a food nonprofit in a Crown Heights office building this month, stealing more than $25,000 in electronic equipment, police said.
The pair let themselves into the national office of Slow Food USA, a sustainable food advocacy group, around 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 10 at 1000 Dean St., the former Studebaker service station located between Classon and Franklin avenues recently turned into a large office complex.
During the burglary, the suspects took computers from the office worth nearly $26,000, police said. No one from Slow Food was there at the time of the burglary and there were no injuries.
On Monday, the NYPD released a video taken from surveillance footage of the pair going into the office, last seen wearing sneakers, jeans and T-shirts.
During the break-in, the suspects also disturbed artwork in the building’s first floor painted by Rusty Zimmerman of the Crown Heights Portrait Project who uses studio space in 1000 Dean St. He said three of his paintings were knocked off a wall by the suspects in the building’s ground-floor hall, but no lasting damage was done and he still feels “secure in the building.”
“1000 Dean does a great job of providing for its tenants and thankfully we’re all insured,” he said.
Anna Mule, a representative of Slow Food, said the group installed a “more robust lock” on their door after the burglary and worked with the building’s management to increase security measures.
“We are confident that our office is now secure,” she said in an email.
An inquiry to the managers of 1000 Dean St. was not immediately returned.
The police department is asking for the public’s help identifying the suspects in the August 10 theft. Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, (888) 57-PISTA (74782).
