Mineola Mayor Warns Residents of Deception Burglaries

Following a series of “distraction” robberies taking place in Nassau County recently reported in ,  and Oceanside since late December, Mineola offered reassurance and advice to residents at the January 18 meeting of the at the .

The mayor stated that to his knowledge no such robberies had occurred in Mineola “and I’d certainly like to keep it that way.” A distraction robbery occurs when an individual approaches a home, ringing the doorbell or knocking and holding a conversation with the resident, gaining entry on the premises of using the phone or bathroom while another individual enters the home from a backdoor or window.

“If somebody comes to your door pretending to be a utility worker, a person in need of a phone call – in today’s day an age, almost everybody has cell phones so it’s kind of a stretch that they would use that excuse – ask for identification if they claim to be a utility worker,” Strauss said. “If they are begging you to use the phone or the bathroom, tell them that there’s a store down the corner, give them a place to go to. If they’re looking for a phone, keep the door locked, say ‘I’ll make the call for you, give me the number.’ If something isn’t feeling right, it’s probably not right and I ask you to call 9-1-1 and have the police respond.”

The mayor also advised residents to “be a great witness, don’t get involved in a confrontation with anybody,” but to remember a description of the person or possibly a license plate number or description of the vehicle.

“Don’t chase them down the street to get the license plate number but be the best witness you can with protecting yourself,” Strauss said. “I don’t mean to scare anybody, there haven’t been any issues that I’m aware of in Mineola, thankfully, but we’ve read in the papers of surrounding communities that have had these issues. So I’d like all of our residents and anyone out in the public to be a little bit more aware of those types of scenarios.”

If a person arrives at a resident’s door claiming to be a representative of the Village of Mineola, they should be able to present a village ID card upon request. The mayor advised that if questions remain about why the person is at the home to contact the village so that verification can be established.

“We’ll send somebody over, either talk you through it, whatever the situation is or ask you to call 9-1-1 if the person’s a fake, what ever the situation is, please verify,” Strauss said. “We used to be a trusting society and to some extent we are; we need to be cautious and careful.”

It was noted that within the boundaries of the Third Precinct coverage area that there has been a series of burglaries of unlocked vehicles.

“People have been walking through the streets at night, not breaking windows, but just touching car doors to see if they’re open and if they see an opportunity,” Mayor Strauss said, asking that residents remember to lock their car doors. “They seize that opportunity and then they take everything that you have in your car. And some times it’s been the tires.”