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New York Post
17 hours ago
- New York Post
NYPD footage captures callous home invaders who allegedly posed as Amazon workers, tied up mom, dad and 3 kids
New NYPD footage captures the callous pair of home invaders who allegedly posed as Amazon workers, tied up an entire family – including three kids – and made off with thousands of dollars in a Queens heist earlier this week. The clip, released by police Tuesday night, shows both perps wearing baseball caps – one carrying an Amazon box and the other wearing a bright-yellow vest – as they casually strolled down the quiet Whitestone block Monday morning. An unsuspecting 43-year-old man answered the door of the single-family home on 12th Avenue near 152nd Street around 7:40 a.m. Monday, before the perps rushed inside – one armed with a gun, authorities said. 3 One of the suspects can be seen toting an Amazon box, and the other wearing a bright yellow vest. NYPD They then forced the family – also including two women, 39 and 18, and two boys, 10 and 5 – into the basement, cops said. The money-hungry fiends tied up the victims and stretched duct tape over their mouths before they ransacked the home, swooping up about $16,000, jewelry, and electronic devices, police said. The brazen duo used the victim's own car, a silver Chrysler minivan, as the getaway vehicle. The car was found abandoned two blocks away, police said. 3 The crew forced the family — including three kids, 5, 10 and 18 — into the basement, cops said. NYPD Witness John Nardone told FreedomNewsTV at the time that he had just climbed out of his car to get to work when he saw the terrified father running out of the house tugging at duct tape on his face. 'I said, 'are you ok?'' Nardone said. 'He said his kids were in the basement.' 'I was wondering if this was real, because of that,' the witness added. 'I've never seen something like that, like a guy come out of his house with duct tape all over his face.' The NYPD is still looking to track down the pair of robbers. 3 The brazen duo allegedly stole about $16,000, jewelry, and electronic devices from the home, cops said. NYPD Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at or on X @NYPDTips.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Robbers force family — including 3 kids — into basement and duct-tape them during armed Queens home invasion
Two thugs armed with guns, one disguised as an Amazon worker, pushed their way into a home in Queens and tied up the family – including three young children – and duct taped their mouths shut, according to law enforcement sources. The thieves, one wearing an Amazon vest the other a black hoodie, forced their way into a single-family home in Whitestone Monday morning just after 9 a.m., police and sources said. One of the family's four children who had already left for school accidentally left the door open making it easier for the gunman to enter the home, law enforcement sources said. The hooligans forced the family into the basement at gunpoint, tied them up and stretched duct tape over their mouths, sources said. The pair raided the home and fled with an unknown amount of cash and jewelry using the victim's own car, a silver Chrysler minivan, as the getaway vehicle. Investigators found it abandoned two blocks away, police said. John Nardone had just climbed out of his car to get to work when he saw the terrified father running out of the house tugging at something on his face. Nardone realized it was duct tape. 'I said, 'are you ok?'' Nardone said. 'He said his kids were in the basement.' Nardone called 911 immediately, according to FreedomNewsTV. 'I honestly didn't really know what he was saying. He didn't really speak the greatest English,' the witness told FreedomNewsTV. 'He seemed really rattled and like he did not know even what was going on. But he was definitely very nervous.' Two police cars responded to the house, which is across the street from PS 193 Alfred J. Kennedy Elementary School, within minutes, Nardone said. He told officers what little he knew. 'He was definitely disheveled,' the witness said of the terrified father. 'He was definitely, like, scared. He probably didn't know what just happened himself.' Nardone said he was nervous himself because he was starting his second day at a new job and didn't want to be late. The scene was so bizarre that at first he questioned what he was seeing. 'I was wondering if this was real, because that,' he said referring to the victim running out of a house, 'I've never seen something like that, like a guy come out of his house with duct tape all over his face.' Police are still searching for the suspects and said the incident remains under investigation. Investigators are looking for any video they can find to help identify the brazen gunman.
Boston Globe
12-03-2025
- Climate
- Boston Globe
BRRRRRRRRRR. A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers is arriving in Cambridge.
Prohibitions of this kind have swept through the region as cities try to pare back the use of gas leaf blowers — and their negative impacts on the climate and quality of life — with mixed reactions from homeowners and mixed results. Advertisement In Cambridge, the transition to all-electric blowers, which are quieter and don't emit those familiar fumes, has been well underway for years. 'It's just part of the routine now,' said John Nardone, deputy commissioner of the city's public works department, which has been increasing its use of electric blowers over time, well before it's required to by city ordinance. Sure, the electric blowers are nowhere near as powerful as their gas-fueled counterparts and become less and less useful in the fall, especially when the leaves are wet, heavy, and difficult to clear at scale without the torque that, for now, only device powered by fossil fuels can provide. But they've been getting better, he said, and in most cases, smaller parks can be rid of leaves and other debris with equipment powered by batteries, which the department now charges overnight and lugs from job site to job site. 'It can be a pain in the neck, especially when you're trying to really get through something quickly and move on to the next part,' he said. 'Maybe the technology isn't exactly where we need it to be, but it's sufficient enough for us to be able to maintain our parks at a level that people expect.' There are carve-outs Advertisement The city, per the ordinance, can also still use gas blowers in emergencies or to clear debris from under cars that are illegally parked on street-sweeping days. Cambridge, since 2023, has followed a policy of Residents, meanwhile, will have to make the switch by this weekend if they want to use leaf blowers to start their spring cleaning. Many already have. Electric leaf blowers, like the kind Cambridge public works crews use on the city's parks, have gotten better with time. They still don't pack the same punch as ones that use gas, landscapers say. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Gas leaf blowers, like this one used by a private landscaping company in Cambridge in 2023, are more powerful, but critics highlight how despite their compact size they contribute heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as air and noise pollution, in communities where they are used. Lane Turner/Globe Staff Cambridge's Tags Hardware, in Porter Square, has only carried electric leaf-blowers for the past seven years, said Mike Mongeau, the store's hardware manager. His customers like the benefits of using electric tools, he said, including that they don't require their owners to work with or store fuel at home. 'We haven't sold gas equipment for quite some time,' Mongeau said. For landscaping companies, the shift won't be quite as easy. Complying with the patchwork of rules in towns that have outlawed various aspects of leaf blower-reliant lawn work has already 'been a very big hassle,' said Andrew Kosko, of Watertown-based Kosko Landscaping, which is one of the Kosko worries that switching to electric equipment will be expensive and that the cost of landscaping for his customers will go up as a result. 'I'm not too happy about this whole thing,' he said. 'Hopefully something happens and they change their mind.' Other companies have tried to be proactive. R & S Landscaping, a Medford-based company, has, for the last three years, been ditching gas. Advertisement It has long worked with Cambridge as a contractor who helps the city clear its parks and cemetery. When officials enacted the ban, said co-owner Keri Brown, she didn't fight it. 'We figured it was a sign of the times,' she said. 'It was going to happen, sooner or later.' Using electric blowers slows things down. She estimates it takes 20-50 percent longer to clear properties of leaves than it did when gas blowers reigned. This year, she said, they will use gas-powered devices as a last resort, possibly in the fall, when the most troublesome wet leaves begin to accumulate. 'That will be a challenge once the city is fully electric,' she said. Any hassle will be worth it, said City Councilor Patricia Nolan, who pushed for the ban. James Roach with his electric blower in Cambridge last week. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Gas-powered leaf blowers, she said, are a menace in multiple ways, emitting noxious fumes and potentially releasing as much greenhouse gas in an hour as So a transition is long overdue, she said. She hopes such bans spread. 'I wish the whole state would move to it,' Nolan said. 'It makes no sense that we would allow something to continue to be used that's clearly harmful.' Leaf-blower regulations have gained popularity in recent years. Some limit noise, others the time of year when that sound is allowed. A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers Advertisement Some leaf blower bans have been ill-fated. In February, officials in South Portland, Maine, abandoned an effort to outlaw them after pushback that included city councilors Nolan said the debate in Cambridge was much more civil. There may still be room to advance, she said. Nolan believes the gas-powered versions of other lawn tools may be next on the chopping block. Whether the rules will be followed is another question. 'Enforcement has been an issue, and compliance has been a big issue,' said Jamie Banks, who lives in Lincoln and founded a nonprofit She backs an effort at the State House, which has yet to gain traction, that would create Meanwhile, Cambridge's colleges, which control wide swaths of the city's acreage, have been making the transition well ahead of the new requirement. About 70 percent of the leaf blowers Harvard uses are electric, a spokesperson said, adding that the plan is for the university's blowers to be all-electric by the end of the year. MIT plans to use only electric leaf blowers this spring and summer, but hasn't committed to cutting out gas in the fall, when the job is harder to do, a spokesperson said. In the end, the success of the transition to electric may depend on the willingness of property owners, large and small, to change their expectations about how lawns are supposed to look, experts said. Advertisement 'Prices will go up for maintenance in Cambridge if people want the same garden aesthetic that they have,' said Catherine Brownlee, managing director of a Belmont-based company called Landscape Collaborative, Inc., which has residential clients in Cambridge. 'It's just going to take a lot more time.' She said she has heard from neighbors in the summer months, when gas blowers are already off limits in the city, who complain about stray leaves and dirt left in their yards. 'They'll say it looks messier than the guy next door, who's got a company who doesn't care about the regulation and just blows,' Brownlee said. Perhaps a ban will lead to change, she said, and people will adjust to seeing New England lawns that aren't as pristine as they once were. 'Maybe there will be a grassroots trend,' she said. Spencer Buell can be reached at
