Several unfortunate commuters returning to their cars at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) stop in Cold Spring, New York were shocked and dismayed to find parking lot vandalism. At least thirteen vehicles were victims of tire slashing. Police believe the vandal struck in three separate attacks over the course of a weekend. One victim reported seeing a car being hauled out of the parking lot on a flatbed truck while he was parking his vehicle shortly after 4PM Saturday. He didn’t think anything of it until he returned at approximately 11PM and found two of the tires on his all-wheel drive car had also been cut. Since his vehicle is all-wheel drive, he can’t replace just the two slashed tires. Instead he will have to replace all four tires at once.
He reported that a Cold Spring, New York police officer told him that the first acts of parking lot vandalism had taken place on Friday night and that his car was the sixth to have suffered from the vandal’s knife. He is understandably upset about the estimated $700 cost of replacing his tires and believes the police could have prevented further vandalism if they had increased patrols after the first attacks. Parking lot security cameras were not reported at this property.
Another victim of parking lot vandalism had her tires slashed after returning from a two-day business trip. She found four flat tires and a note from the police. Her insurance will cover the $1,200 cost of replacing the tires – after she pays the $500 deductible. According to this article , the officers from MTA Police and the Cold Spring, New York Police Department said there were no security cameras in the parking lot. A follow-up call to the MTA Police office in Beacon confirmed that while there are no cameras on the train platform, there is one parking lot surveillance camera at the south end of the parking lot. That lone security camera did nothing to deter the parking lot vandalism in New York.
The MTA is not a client of Stealth Monitoring. Stealth proactive live video parking lot surveillance can detect and deter crime in the New York City metro area and other cities in the U.S. while reducing security guard and other expenses. A Stealth operator could have seen unusual activity like parking lot vandalism, activated a speaker warning to deter the criminals, and called the local police for quick police response.
Please contact Stealth today for more information to protect your parking lot from parking lot vandalism, whether you own or manage a shopping center, apartment building, office building, auto dealer, or other commercial facility. Visit our web site to see actual videos of criminals being apprehended at a variety of businesses.
