Isaac Yu Photo
Car window on Dwight.
At least eight cars in one block have been broken into in the last month — all parked on an 80-foot stretch of Dwight Street.
The neighbors have noticed.
On June 2, a resident at the Embassy Apartments complex, just down the street from that house, warned their neighbors in an email about multiple break-ins. They recounted having their own car as well as their mother’s car broken into.
“I, personally, did not have a single thing in the car (literally it was completely empty), and they broke the windows anyways,” the email read. “I think that the perpetrator(s) have been having some luck with the cars on our street, so they have been breaking the windows of cars even if they don’t have anything of value visible.”
At that point, at least five break-ins had already occurred, according to the email, with several of them reported to the police by the sender. All of them, according to eyewitnesses, occurred on the right shoulder of Dwight at its intersection with George Street.
A day later, residents noticed that the spot where victims’ cars had been parked was roped off with “wet paint” tape, placed about two feet into the street. According to Dwight District Manager Capt. John Healy, the tape was not placed by NHPD. The cones and tape have since been moved onto the curb.
SeeClickFix car-break in reports over past year.
Several car break-ins ensued, now occurring on both sides of Dwight. Each one appeared to have been carried out at night, usually between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m, according to witnesses who heard car alarms.
Sophie said she witnessed one break-in mid-action, with a figure dressed in a white shirt rifling through a car with its alarm sounding. After the alarm stopped, she assumed the figure was the owner. In the morning, however, she saw that the car’s windows had been smashed, and called the police to report it.
The officer on the phone told her that because she was not the owner of the car in question, no report could be filed. This has left her and neighbors she knows feeling unsupported, she said.
“I’m terrified of having my car broken into,” she said.
Last Friday, both sides of the street were still littered with shards of broken glass in at least five different spots.
NHPD’s Healy said that officers are investigating the area around Dwight, Howe, and Park Streets and associated cross streets.
“We have had an uptick in the area over the last couple weeks,” he said. “However since the uptick we have made two associated arrests, we have developed two additional persons of interest and we have been (and continue to) putting extra deployment detail in the area to take a proactive approach to the matter. The Officers thus far have done a good job developing info and leads.”
Here’s a timeline of events, reconstructed from various eyewitness accounts.
• Unknown date: Break-in, minivan with Michigan license plates
• May 20: Break-in, pyrex dishes left on the side of the road
• May 21: Break-in, police called
• June 2: Break-in, orange Honda Element, police called. Email circulated among Embassy Apartments neighbors.
• June 3: “Wet paint” tape and two orange cones placed in the street.
June 5: Break-in, orange car; police called.
June 8: Two break-ins, blue Toyota Prius.
June 18: Break-in, white Ford Fusion with New York plates, police called.
Overall, as of June 6, the Dwight/Howe/Park district actually had a drop in reported larcenies from vehicles, according to Healy: 41 through June 6 in 2020, 31 this year through June 6.