By Connor Adams Sheets
Police were still searching Tuesday afternoon for two men who dressed as construction workers in an attempt to burglarize a College Point woman’s home.
The two unidentified Hispanics knocked on the door of a woman in her 50s Friday afternoon, and when she opened it they forced their way into her home on Taipei Court in Edgewater Estates, according to police, who did not provide the woman’s name.
The men then tied up the woman, left her on the first floor and then went to the second floor, police said. The woman escaped and ran into the street screaming for help, after which a neighbor called the police.
By the time police arrived, the men had already fled the scene, but they did not make off with any of the woman’s property, according to police.
No arrests had been made in the case as of Tuesday afternoon, police said.
As of April 4, there had been 10 burglaries so far in the 109th Precinct this year, up 66.6 percent from six by this time last year, according to NYPD statistics.
Helen Lee, a neighbor across the parking lot from the scene of the crime, said as crime scene investigators dusted the victim’s door that there is a major problem with car break-ins in the neighborhood, but she had never heard about burglaries or home invasions in her six years in the area. She said her family’s cars were broken into twice.
Lee said she and her family want to move to another area because of crime and the general feel of the neighborhood, but financial constraints have stopped them thus far.
“We’re thinking of moving because we’re not liking it. This is just a personal thing, but in this community right here people aren’t really abiding by the law,” she said. “I don’t like this area much.”
LaQuan Webb and Sherrieann Balram, neighbors a few doors down from Lee, had the opposite impression of the waterside community of attached condos and townhouses they inhabit. Balram said they even leave their windows open, but they will cease that practice now that they have heard about the home invasion.
“It’s a pretty good community. Never had a problem,” Webb said. “I’m surprised, I thought maybe someone passed away because we don’t usually see police pulling up and parking out here. It’s the first time.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
