No Spike in Park Slope Muggings (and a Map)

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Early yesterday morning, we ran an account of a mugging that occurred on Tenth Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues that occurred when a man followed someone from the Seventh Avenue station to his door. More about that in moment, but we checked on the 78th Precinct's latest crime statistics and found there's been no increase in muggings over last year and that, in fact, reported incidents are down slightly from 2007 so far.

Back to the 10th Street mugging, however, in which the criminal practically forced his way into the victim's home. A follow up email on the Park Slope Parents Group that came our way indicated that at least one person recalled seeing the mugger in the Seventh Avenue station. She wrote that she was near the 8th Ave entrance of the station at about 6:30PM when "a tall, thin black man with orange pants was hanging around the turnstiles." While she was buying a Metrocard, she says that he asked her if she was buying a single ride and that she assumed it was because he wanted to do a "pay & swipe" with her. The encounter seems to have occurred shortly before the mugging. "It wouldn't have occurred to me to notify anyone, he seemed young and harmless, though I guess I might have thought otherwise if it was late at night," she says. "Very disturbing!"

The map above is an interactive "mugging map" that has been created and posted to Google Maps. Click here to go to the map itself and we've placed a frame of the clickable map below. The map was created by someone at the Prospect Heights Forum and was also posted by Brownstoner this week.

The 78th Precinct is said to be aware of "a spike" in crime and has added foot patrols, however, a look at Compstat for the Precinct through Febuary 3 shows no statistical increase in reported robberies whatsoever. There were three reported robberies during the week of 1/28-2/3 versus two for the same week in 2007. Overall, there have been 13 reported robberies so far in 2008 versus 15 for the same period in 2007, which is actually a 13.3 percent decrease.The 78th Precinct Community Council meeting will be held on February 26 at 7:30PM at the precinct station house, which is located at 5 6th Avenue.


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