Quote:

This is something I plan to bring up with Councilman Bill Gaughan when I see him later this week. One way to go about this sort of thing is to get involved with one of the Neighborhood Associations.

I'm really kicking myself right now.

I was driving home from Hoboken at about 11:30 and as I stopped at the light at Paterson Plank and Congress I noticed about seven teens hanging out at light rail elevator. One was climbing the wall there (next to cliff) and trying to get on top of the building or something. I had a fleeting thought that maybe they were trying to disable the video cam or something. I should have called the cops but didn't b/c I figured it is just our JC teens being JC teens and the cops wouldn't do much about it.

but then that robbery happened there 1.5 hours later with a group of teens! oh, I mad at myself.

I am also irritated that we don't have police sitting in this area EVERY night. Can we petition for this? Where/how? Anybody know? It is ridiculous that we don't have a permanent patrol in that area - all sorts of probs late at night. I NEVER see cops driving around there. One cop car parked there every night would put an end to all of this crap.

I wonder if these robberies were the work of a group of idiots from outside the Heights? A field trip, maybe? It's weird that these incidents all occurred on the same day.

I also had a bad experience on Wednesday while running down the sidewalk on Webster avenue at about 9:35 pm. Someone (I think he may have splintered off from a small group but I'm not sure) ran up behind me in a way that was unusually threatening. I'm used to neighborhood teens goofing around and daring each other to to join me for a few yards of my run every now and again, and I never feel afraid when it happens. We banter back and forth and everyone laughs.

This time something was very "off", the guy who ran up to me began to veer into me and invade my personal space rather than just fall into stride beside me. I had the sense he was going to push me or strike out. I yelled "Hey!!" and stepped off the curb at the last minute and ran into the street to get away from him. He said something I didn't catch and stop pursuing me. I didn't get a look at him at all, it happened so suddenly. I'm used to feeling pretty comfortable at all hours of the night here, and it's a shame for that to change.

3 victims report being robbed in Heights

Friday, August 15, 2008
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A man selling party cruise tickets was robbed at gunpoint, another man was pistol-whipped and a third was surrounded by teens and threatened with a stick in three Jersey City Heights robberies, police reports said.

A 24-year-old salesman approached a man sitting in Gordon Park on Kennedy Boulevard Wednesday afternoon at 2:53 p.m. to offer tickets for a party cruise. The man pretended he was interested, but as the seller was counting change, the phony customer pulled a small gun and said "I'll take that" before fleeing with $270.

At midnight Wednesday, a 43-year-old Storms Avenue man was choked from behind as he got out of his car near his home, reports said.

A second assailant took $500 and a cell phone, and the victim was bashed in the head with a gun, reports said. Knocked to the ground, the man told cops he saw three men in their 20s walking away from the scene.

In a third incident, an hour later, around five juveniles surrounded a 34-year-old man walking home from the Light Rail station at Congress Street and Paterson Plank Road. One of the youths was holding a stick, so the man handed over $80 before fleeing home on his bike.