255 McKibbin Street, one of the two buildings collectively known as the McKibbin lofts (the one on the right above), has become a popular destination for armed thieves with three apartments robbed in the last week. The Brooklyn Paper reports that units were broken into on May 16, 17 and 19, and in two cases thieves threatened to kill occupants.
On the night of the 16th two thieves entered an apartment on the first floor and stole the video game system the terrified occupant had been playing along with his iPhone and wallet, threatening to kill him if he called for help.
The evening of the 17th another video game console was swiped on the third floor, along with a laptop, while the apartment’s occupant was in a different room. Two days later, on the fifth floor, a thief entered an apartment after midnight to find its tenants watching TV and, claiming to have a gun, took their Xbox, iPods, laptops and cell phones.
In every case it seems the thieves were buzzed into the building and entered apartments with unlocked front doors. Resident Amelia Trask tells the BP: “It’s a good target. Everybody in here is an artist. Everybody has video or music equipment.” Everybody in there is also apparently under the impression that they still live in a dorm. Of course, one would hope that the good-natured idealism of unlocked doors and an all-inclusive environment can coexist with safety and security. A former resident notes: “McKibbin was an open place where people kept [the] door unlocked—now it’s almost a gated community.”