Burglars breach the doors, vandalize the Tibbett Diner

Tibbett Diner was burglarized early Wednesday Feb. 15, police said. The intruders didn’t stay for long before high tailing it down the block without taking a dime.

“Not even a nickel from the register,” said the diner’s owner. He alerted police at about 2:40 a.m. when the diner’s alarm system was activated, waking him at his home in New Jersey. He made it to Kingsbridge by about 3:15 a.m. to survey the damage, he said.

The intruders spray-painted over the diner’s security cameras and gained entrance by breaking through two double-paned glass doors with a sledgehammer. The doors were shattered, officers stated.

After his midnight trip across the Hudson, Tibbett Diner’s owner said he’d “rather they at least stole a muffin.”
“But they were in there for maybe three minutes.”
The case has been assigned to the 50th Precinct detective squad.

Break-ins are a reoccurring event at Tibbett Diner. According to its proprietor, they generally happen about once a year, but have become more frequent the last three years.

On a particularly memorable night some years ago, he said he awoke during his first vacation in three years to a security alert of a burglary underway for at least 45 minutes. He stayed on the phone with an emergency dispatcher while police responded.

Phone scammed

A phone scammer stole $3,948.39 from a 72-year-old woman at 629 Kappock St. at 3 p.m. on Feb. 2, police learned. She told officers she sent the money in three transactions on the digital payment network, Zelle, after receiving a call from a person who convinced her she owed the amount in bank fees.

She was persuaded by the caller’s false claims to be a representative from Bank of America, she said, only to discover the pretense shortly after.

The crime constitutes an offense of grand larceny. The 50th Precinct detective squad is investigating.

<it>Abigail Nehring is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.<it>