Gunpoint Robbery Spurs Brooklyn Tenants' Ire Over Broken Locks

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A violent gunpoint robbery in a building at the Crown Heights border has renewed tenants' outrage over a broken front door lock.

Residents of 501 Lefferts Ave. will rally Wednesday to demand safety upgrades after a delivery worker on May 7 was beaten and robbed in the building, then shot at when he chased them outside, according to tenants and police.

Surveillance video shows two people stealing the delivery worker's phone, food and $5 then running away as the worker tries to follow, according to police.

"Fortunately no one was killed," said leaders of Equality for Flatbush, who are helping organize the rally. "Tenants have had enough of living in an insecure building where anyone can freely enter."

The robbery is not the first time tenants say security at the building has left them fearful. The front door lock, which tenants say is decades old, has had problems since at least 2018, according to building records.

"I'm scared of my life when I come in in the night," one tenant said at a previous rally held at the building, according to video.

The tenant said the lock has not been replaced since she moved in about 30 years ago.

The door is also not the only problem tenants say landlords have ignored, tenants say. The complex had 87 open violations with the city, including the broken locks, roach and mice infestations and water leaks as of Thursday, records show.

Tenants said the building's elevator breaks for weeks or months at a time, forcing them to struggle up and down several flights of stairs.

"I live on the fourth floor and I cannot get my clothes to the laundry," another tenant said in the rally video. "I need help right now because I am handicap."

Next Wednesday's rally will be held from 3 to 7:30 p.m. outside 75 Huntington St., which organizers say is the office of the building's owners, Cornell Realty and Isaac Hager.

Cornell denied to Patch that they or Hager, the founder of their firm, are owners of 501 Lefferts Ave.

The name Isaac Hager is listed as one of the building's owners on nonprofit Just Fix's "Who Owns What?" database.

Property records list an LLC named Lefferts Realty as the owner of the building with a Kingston Avenue address connected to firm Dira Realty, which also lists someone named "Isaac" in its company directory. Dira did not respond to a request for comment from Patch on Thursday.