'Enough Is Enough:' Park Slope Business Owners Exasperated By Recent Burglaries, Police Say Many By Same Man
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some Brooklyn businesses have reached a breaking point after being burglarized multiple times in the past few months.
Police say one man is responsible for most of the crimes.
Ronny Jaramillo says his Park Slope restaurants were burglarized four times between November and December. Among the damage, a cash register thrown on the floor, broken glass and a computer stolen.
"It's horrible because each one of those windows is $750, so they broke four of them," he told CBS2's Lisa Rozner.
Sandwich Girl opened across the street two months ago. Just before Christmas, an iPad was stolen -- the owner says by the same man who broke into Jaramillo's businesses.
"I had passed out wanted posters," owner Shreen Elkenani said. "He came to apologize."
Police said the "he" is 58-year-old Charles "Chuckie" Wold, who lives in the neighborhood and has a drug problem. Since September, he's been arrested for burglarizing at least 10 business -- mostly in Brooklyn and a few in Lower Manhattan -- and released because the crimes are not eligible for bail.
"We've been hearing about burglaries for months on almost like a nightly or every other night basis," said Mark Caserta, executive director of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District.
Half a mile down the block, other businesses were targeted. In fact, police say this precinct has seen a more than 90% increase in burglaries compared to this time last year.
Surveillance video from El Patrol Taqueria allegedly shows Wold sneak in one morning, even walking behind an employee at the kitchen.
"The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce said in a recent survey, 77% of businesses saw a decrease in business during the holiday season," Caserta said. "So to have commercial burglaries happening on top of that was really damaging."
"Enough is enough," said Elkenani.
"The feeling was frustration and very helpless," Jaramillo added. "This is the result of the bail reform."
Police are still searching for other suspects, but Jaramillo says detectives told him Wold has taught some of his accomplices how to break locks.
In the past, Wold had been released under conditions that he attend drug treatment. His attorneys declined to comment.
Wold was arrested again this week and is now being held on $50,000 bail.
