As I was writing up the previous post about 1483 Newton, I received an email from a reader whose friend had their car broken into. The perpetrator then apparently took the stuff over to 1483 Newton Street NW, the abandoned building, where they looked through it and got rid of the stuff they didn’t want.
Just another example of how aside from being eyesores and a waste of real estate where people could live, abandoned buildings can also harbor crime. Here’s the reader’s full story. It also serves as a reminder to always be careful about having things in your car in plain view, as the reader notes. If you saw any of this happen, please contact the police.
Yesterday, a friends car was broken into on Meridian Place just east of 16th St when he was visiting my apartment. This occurred between 1 and 6 PM on Sunday April 3rd, right next to the awning of the Meridian Place entrance to the Urban Village apartments. The rear window was broken in and a bag, containing a laptop and camera among other things was taken. Yes, this stuff should not have been left visible in his car, but I would like to pass the details along to hopefully prevent such things from happening to others in the future. I also feel horrible that my friend was at hy house when I was not around and was not there to make sure he took all valuables out of his car, as he is not used to parking in the area. I hate that this reflects so poorly on my neighborhood., which for the most part, I love and feel very safe in.
The police in this case were next to useless. An officer showed up and stayed for quite a while. but the crime scene investigators he called never showed up(Im sure that they were short staffed and had more important things to tend to, which is annoying but understandable). my friend received a phone call while waiting for the investigators from a woman who had found his bag, albeit without the camera or laptop. The officer went to take a look, but left the bag and its contents there until the investigators showed up. When they did not, and it started to rain, he told us to go get the stuff, but as he could not get back in touch with the woman who had found it, had us do it ourselves. We later managed to get in touch with the nice woman who had found the bag by the dumpster at the apartment building at 1489 Newton street, and she took us back there. She said however that she thought there had been more stuff there and it had disappeared in the time the officer would not let us retrieve it, but left it unattended. We observed some more of my friends stuff, mostly CDs, strewn around on the other side of the fence, which is the abandoned building at 1483 Newton. we called the police hoping they could come out as we could not get into the padlocked lot and while we could have hopped the fence, it did not seem to necesarily be the smartest plan to approach an abandoned building in the dark. The cops never came, so we left the stuff there. For all we know, the perps and some of the more important items (laptop, camera) could have been in the building.
I live at the Allegro Appartment building. I can actually see the abandoned building in question from my deck. I think those six or so identical older style buildings on Newton and Meridian which back to the alley behind Allegro are beautiful. But my guess is that these perps ran through the Urban Garden parking lot, hopped the fence into 1483 Netwon, rummaged through the bag there, and tossed what they didnt want over the fencce to the dumpster at 1489.
The rest of those older buildings have been rennovated and seem to be very nice places. I am sure that there would be an economic incentive to do the same for the building at 1483. Whether they turn it into expensive condos or subsidized housing, it would certainly be better than the blight that it seems to be today. I love Columbia Heights, blemishes and all, and I think the worst thing to do would be to overreact to things like this and further the pushing out of the people who live here and are virtually all good people. But this should not be the kind of activity we just take for granted, and I think that something needs to be done to prevent the kind of behavior that no one here wants to continue. I would hope that something can be done to clean up that abandoned building and keep that from being an attractive hangout for those who would swipe things from cars.
In addition, if anyone has any information that would help solve this crime, that would be very much appreciated, but I have no illusions that this will ever be solved. It is also worth noting that some residents near the scene of the burglary mentioned that there had been quite a few crimes in that area recently.
