Crime & Safety

Liquor Store Hours Alarm W.H. Residents

Community concerned about vandalism, drinking near Lakeview train station.

The stores hours of one local liquor store has some residents in West Hempstead concerned about the affects on the community.

They say Hing Wine and Liquor, located on Woodfield Road across from the Lakeview Long Island Railroad station, is selling alcohol past midnight on some nights of the week.

"I work for the railroad, so I take the train very early," said one man who spoke up at last month's meeting of the West Hempstead Community Support and Civic Association. "I've been seeing a lot of winos sleeping on the platform, seeing graffitti more and broken liquor bottles, airplane bottles...I know it's coming from that store."

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The man, who lives in the area, said that he's witnessed the store open as late as 12:30 a.m. and seen customers get into their cars after making a purchase and then speed down Woodfield Road, creating a dangerous situation.

Nassau Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, who was present at the civic meeting, agreed that no liquor store should be open this late.

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A worker at the store said that the business is open till 10:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. However, he admitted that if he has work to do in the store he will sometimes keep it open as late as midnight.

Rosalie Norton, president of the West Hempstead civic, said, "This is a classic example where [Nassau County's Problem Oriented Policing, or POP,] unit would be invaluable."

Norton and other residents who were present that this meeting were alarmed that the County is shifting officers out of P.O.P. to compensate for an increase in patrol officers taking vacations and leading to skyrocketing overtime. for that story.

"When you bring an item like this to the attention of the P.O.P. unit, it's the same officer that goes back to the site and would be able to recognize a pattern and track it," she said.

She explained that this would not be the case if officers were shuffled around, adding,"It's very difficult to track something like this if you have an array of different police men responding to it."

The Fifth Precinct's P.O.P. unit has not returned requests for comment at this time.


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