Car Thefts Spike In Forest Hills Amid Drop In Other Thefts: Data

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Forest Hills and Rego Park are seeing a spike in car thefts as other grand larcenies plummet, NYPD data shows.

Seven stolen cars were reported to the NYPD's 112th Precinct in the four-week period from April 13 to May 10 compared to three such thefts in the same timeframe last year, according to the most recent crime data posted on the department's CompStat database.

The 112th Precinct received eight reports of grand larcenies in that four-week timeframe, compared to 31 during the same time last year, the data shows.

Petit larcenies, or the theft of goods worth less than $1,000, experienced a slight decrease from 68 to 65 in the same timeframe last year versus this year.

Burglaries and robberies saw neither an increase nor a decrease, according to the data.

In an interview with the Queens Chronicle, Capt. Joseph Cappelmann, the commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, noted there are fewer opportunities for some crimes given the pandemic-related closures.

"I attribute that to some quality police work but also to the fact that there’s a lot less opportunity to commit shoplifting or unattended grand larceny because there’s nobody eating in restaurants,” Cappelmann told the newspaper of the decrease in grand larcenies.

"There’s been a little bit of a crime shift," he said.