Brooklyn - Robberies soaring in Prospect Park

Leave your iPhone at home when you walk through Prospect Park.

Robberies more than doubled in Brooklyn’s biggest green space over the past year — even as Central Park’s numbers dropped by 13.3 percent.

There have been 17 robberies between Jan. 1 and Nov. 23 in Prospect Park, compared with seven in 2011 in the same time span.

Central Park, meanwhile, had 13 robberies this year, compared with 15 at this time in 2011.

Manhattan’s sprawling park still had more overall so-called “index crimes”— which include assault and grand larceny, among others — but Brooklyn’s total jumped higher over the past year, from 27 to 31, compared with Central Park’s 92, an increase of only two crimes from 2011.

Neither park had any murders and only Central Park had a rape.

Victoria O’Leary, of Park Slope, was walking through the park two weeks ago while talking on her Blackberry when two men grabbed her phone and ran off.

“From now on, when I walk I tell women to be careful,” she said yesterday. “Most women walk and use their cellphone without paying attention. Now I use an earpiece or just don’t talk on my phone when I walk my dogs.”

Some park-goers stick to populated areas and don’t jog at night.

“I only walk alone around the park at busy times,” said Hillary Powell. “I wouldn’t be here in the park alone unless I felt it was very populated.”        




NY POST