Volume LXXV, Number 33
www.towntopics.com
USPS, Local Police Combat Spate of Mailbox Fishing
Pandemic Pet Adoptions Ease . . . . . . . 5 Cause of Two Local Fires Yet to Be Determined . . . . . . . . . 12 Lewis Center Symposium “Reactivates Memory” . . . . . . . . . . . 16 PU Football Primed to Kick Off Preseason Camp . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Stentz Leaving Rec Department With Pride in Team’s Achievements . . . . . . 26
Edward James Olmos Stars in This Week’s Celebration of Battlestar Galactica . . . . . . . . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 21 Classified Ads . . . . . . 30 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 29 Performing Arts . . . . . 16 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 30 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
Princeton is often touted as a safe, secure, low-crime community, but local residents have recently fallen victim to a number of “mailbox fishing” thefts. The Town Topics Police Blotter for the first week in August tells the tale. On August 1, a man reported that three checks he mailed had been stolen, altered, and cashed. Two days later a woman lost $6,000 after a check she had mailed was stolen and altered. The following day another woman reported a check stolen, altered, and cashed for a $4,000 loss. All three thefts were from mailboxes on Nassau Street. On the morning of August 6, a woman reported a loss of $4,000 from a check she had mailed that had been stolen and altered, and less than three hours later a man reported that three checks he had mailed at Palmer Square East had been stolen and altered, resulting in a loss of $8,831. Similar reports of checks mailed, stolen, altered, and cashed were received by the Princeton Police Department (PPD) in July and many more throughout the previous year. The perpetrators go to the mailboxes with some type of long string with sticky material on the end, according to PPD Sergeant Thomas Lagomarsino. They drop the line down and pull up random pieces of mail as quickly as possible in order to escape quickly. The check thieves can “wash” or erase the ink with chemicals found in common household cleaning products and re-write the checks. Investigations continue, as the PPD collaborates with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). Princeton Postmaster George Sabu pointed out that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is in the process of changing mailboxes to equip them with an anti-theft device. “By next week, we’ll be seeing the new boxes in Palmer Square and on Nassau Street,” he said. “Nobody will be able to get mail out by ‘fishing.’” In the meantime, Lagomarsino advised, “If you are sending checks through the mail, go directly to the post office with your letter, or give it directly to the mail carrier. If you use the mailbox, put your mail in close to the pick-up time that’s written on the mailbox. Try not to leave it Continued on Page 10
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
COVID Concerns Loom as Fall Approaches Talk of “coming out of the woods,” “flattening the curve,” and “achieving herd immunity” seems to have subsided, replaced by fears that with the Delta variant accelerating its spread, the fall might bring yet another wave of COVID-19 and that the world might be living with this pandemic for a long time. New Jersey, with almost 60 percent of its population fully vaccinated, and Princeton with 77 percent of residents age 12 and over vaccinated, are not facing the same threatening surges in case numbers that are plaguing Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, but the outlook for the coming months and beyond is troubling. On Monday Princeton reported 17 new cases of COVID-19 in the previous seven days, 29 new cases in the previous 14 days. “COVID is something that we all need to understand will be part of our lives forever, either through discovering and grappling with new variants or through memories of what has occurred throughout the past 17 months,” Princeton Health Officer Jeff Grosser wrote in an email Tuesday. He continued, “Restrictions such as mask wearing and social distancing will likely be mobilized when needed. Communities need to swiftly adapt to changing community transmission. I believe COVID
discussions will eventually become more commonplace, a bit more understood, which should lead us to a time somewhere down the road that COVID is not taking up everyone’s thoughts and efforts. It is going to take a tremendous amount of public health resources to get to that point.” Grosser went on to reflect on the challenges that must be faced as the country adapts to the changing demands of the ongoing pandemic. “My comment on COVID is not meant to sound pessimistic
about the outlook we face, particularly in a bleak period of rising COVID-19 infections,” he said. “It’s more of a statement of preparations for the community. We all need to stand ready to adapt to new infections, increased community transmission, and higher reinstated or newfound precautions we can take to thwart increases in severity of cases.” He also suggested the possible need to refocus some goals and objectives with less focus on case numbers and more Continued on Page 8
Cyclists Coming to Town Aug. 28, Will Stay at YMCA, Local Hotels Recently recognized as the most bikefriendly town in New Jersey, Princeton will be hosting more than 350 cyclists on the weekend of August 28-29, as they ride into town for the night on a two-day, 125mile spin from New York to Philadelphia. Sponsored by the East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA), this ride, being labeled “from Cheesecake to Cheesesteak,” will support the ECGA with fundraising to help accelerate the development of the ECGA route in New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. About 1,000 miles of the ECGA Maine-to-Florida route is on protected greenways, and the organization is hoping to move the entire
route off-road by 2030. The riders, from ages 15 to 78 with an average age of 50.8, come from 22 different states, with 82 from New York, 76 from Pennsylvania, and 71 from New Jersey. “This is such a pivotal time for the climate, for building community and making links between people, and for public health in our country,” said ECGA Executive Director Dennis Markatos-Soriano in a phone call Monday from ECGA headquarters in North Carolina. “This ride is partly about helping to transform the way people move so that we’re not driving everywhere. We’re starting to bike and walk Continued on Page 8
IN THE SWIM: Community Park Pool provided a welcome respite from the warm weather last Friday . Swimmers share what else they do to beat the summer heat in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . (Photo by Weronika A. Plohn)