NYC Looters Dress Like Con Edison Workers to Gain Access to Houses

Morning Show
Tags: Culture, News, US, Frankenstorm, Hurricane Sandy, New York City
Crystal Park
Nov 1, 2012 19:51



Breezy Point. (c)Voice of Russia, photo: Vasili Sushko.

New York is still struggling with getting back to work and cleaning up. Here are some of the more notable stories from the storm:
Crystal Park interviews New York correspondent Vasili Sushko on the state of the city:

With limited metro access, New Yorkers had some of the worst commutes imaginable today. Thousands of people lined up at bus stops to try to get into Manhattan, and cars without three passengers weren't allowed into the city to try and cut down on traffic.

As of this recording, 600,000 in New York City are still without power. The local power company, Con Edison, is working on areas with the highest population first.

Looters have taken advantage of the confusion and desperation by dressing as Con Edison workers and breaking into houses on the pretext that they were doing electrical repairs. Sushko reports that around 15 people have been arrested for looting.

When Hurricane Katrina struck downtown New Orleans, a huge issue that we saw unfold in the days after was the problem of looting and violence in the streets. Has New York seen anything like that in the past few days?

It has. Sadly it did. From what I understand there have been 15 arrests so far in the outer boroughs of New York City for people who were looting and were arrested. Here are a few stories that I’ve heard. People actually dressed up as Con Edison power utility workers during the actual storm and in the hours after it passed and went and looted apartments that way.

There have also been reports that several, I’d say dozens of pharmacies have been looted. As you know, pharmacies have medications and prescription pills that many people are addicted to and those were looted. Reports of maybe 12 to 15 pharmacies have been looted, but no arrests in connection to any pharmacy lootings.

There have been 15 other arrests I believe most of them coming from Brooklyn and Queens that suffered many of these power outages. Fifteen arrested. I’m not sure if there are going to be more. Places like Long Beach and several places in New Jersey as well have put in these curfews from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. where residents can’t be outside. That was the measure done to prevent looting.