Village of Williston Park officials told residents Monday they should continue taking precautions following a string of burglaries in the area.
Burglars hit two homes on Collins Avenue in January, and police arrested a Brooklyn man Feb. 20 in connection with burglaries in Williston Park and Mineola said Trustee William Carr, the Village Board’s liaison to Nassau County police.
“I know it’s a great village to live in, but lock your doors,” Carr said at Monday’s Village Board meeting.
An investigation led to the arrest of Mamuka Bokuchava, 31, on Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn last Saturday after a Williston Park woman told police she had seen a man leaving her Princeton Street house through a window with a bag of stolen property, police said Feb. 22.
Police determined he stole cash and jewelry from a Lipton Lane home in Williston Park on Dec. 7 and another home on Roselle Street in Mineola on Jan. 6. The investigation is ongoing, police said.
Bokuchava was arraigned Monday in First District Court in Hempstead on three felony counts of second-degree burglary. He was due back in court Feb. 24.
The recent incidents have “evolved” from earlier crimes in which residents left their cars unlocked and had change and valuables stolen, Carr said.
Many are happening during the day or in the evening, before residents get home from work, Trustee Teresa Thomann said.
“It’s an issue that we all need to get a little bit wiser on, and more alert,” she said.
Village Mayor Paul Ehrbar said the latest string of incidents wasn’t an “explosion” of burglaries, and Williston Park is still generally a safe village.
Doreen Ehrbar, Ehrbar’s wife and a former mayor who leads Williston Park’s Neighborhood Watch, said residents should look out for neighbors and pick up newspapers or garbage left out to prevent attracting burglars.
“I think every time you have an opportunity when you’re with a group of people, you need to bring up — watch your neighbors, and know what your neighborhood is like,” Doreen Ehrbar said Monday.
The Neighborhood Watch hosted Inspector John Berry, commanding officer of the Nassau County Police Department’s Third Precinct, and the precinct’s recently re-introduced problem-oriented police, or POP, officers at a recent meeting to discuss the burglary problem, she said.
The group has been talking with local senior citizens to instruct them how to make their homes look occupied when they’re out, Doreen Ehrbar said, but it needs more block captains to coordinate its efforts.
The Williston Park and Albertson Civic Associations were set to host police at a meeting Wednesday to discuss the burglaries.
Williston Park Civic Association President Bob Mitchell said he thinks the village needs a greater police presence, as Carr’s police report indicated cops wrote only three summonses in the village for moving violations in January.
“I just think there needs to be a little more pressure put on,” Mitchell said. “Even if they don’t write that many summonses, they’re out there doing something, stopping people — the fact is that (if) there are cops out there being seen and doing things, that should deter some of the burglaries.”
Paul Ehrbar said he often speaks with police, including Berry, and asks for more to be done.
They’re receptive to the concerns and are investigating burglaries in the Williston Park and Albertson area, he said, but police have a lot to cover and don’t always follow through on promises to pull more people over.
Police spokesman Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun said police issued 81 traffic tickets in Williston Park over the same period last year, and officers intensified their patrols in the village and Albertson in response to the burglaries.
A low number of summonses doesn’t mean the police presence in an area has decreased, LeBrun said.
“It means we’ve intensified the patrol and we may have been doing other things rather than just issuing tickets,” he said.
Ehrbar said residents should call 911 if they see any incidents.
