When will it be enough?

A series of break-ins at Idle Hour mansion in Oakdale have totaled to possibly thousands of dollars worth of damage to the historical site.

A community group that patrols the area found the damage to the property on Aug. 3, that included broken windows (including stained-glass), doors, display cases, furniture and equipment. David Chan, a retired NYPD detective and one of the founders of the neighborhood watch group, estimated that between $50,000 to $100,000 worth of damage was done.

Don Cook, the property manager for the current owner of the Idle Hour mansion, Mercury International, filed a felony vandalism report with the Fifth Precinct.

Cook was contacted multiple times for comment, but did not reply by time of press.

Det. Daniel Hogan, who was assigned to the vandalism case, advised local residents to keep the police informed of any suspicious activity they observe in the area, including monitoring Ring videos.

Hogan has typically been assigned to high-value vandalism cases such as that of the Idle Hour mansion.

Described by Hogan as a type of “mischievous” crime with “no purpose,” he could not comment on any leads that the Suffolk County Police Department were looking into.

The recent break-ins, albeit much more extensive than previous ones, are commonplace at the former Dowling College site, where last year local residents formed a neighborhood watch group that patrols the Idle Hour mansion nightly.

Residents have spent their own funds to protect historical items on the property, such as a fountain; they also restored the flagpole and removed downed trees and mowed overgrown grass.

Community residents have long been critical of Mercury International’s blind eye to the ongoing neglect, decrepitude, and criminal activity that they have observed to be rife on the Idle Hour property.

In a recent press conference with NBC News, community member Tom Alfano was critical of the Town of Islip’s perceived lack of response to the situation at Idle Hour.

Islip Town supervisor Angie Carpenter has detailed her commitment to preserving the historical value and safety of Idle Hour and said, “From the beginning of my tenure here, since the property was auctioned off, I met with Oakdale Historical Society and worked with the planning department and adopted a special designation, an overlay district, and outlined a Planned Landmark Preservation Overlay District (PLP) for the property and have been watching ever since. [It has been a] long, tortured, history in the last couple of years.”

While Carpenter has stated that as private property, they have no recourse to mitigate Mercury’s sale of the Idle Hour mansion, they will do everything to limit the buyers’ pool with the parameters of the PLP to encourage a new owner that will protect the historical status of the property.

“We are absolutely, unequivocally committed to the preservation of Idle Hour [and that] nothing disastrous happens during the transition,” said Carpenter.

Mercury International and an unnamed Chinese bank are co-owners of the property, and have both been unreachable for the town’s inquiries and requests (as the loan for the property is unsatisfied, by Chinese law, the crediting bank is automatically a 49 percent owner until the loan is paid off), according to Carpenter.

Most recently, Carpenter has spoken with Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society, about having the town attorney look into whether additional security requirements (such as security cameras) can be requested of Mercury, given the parameters of the PLP.

According to Almes, “The town was ultimately cooperative with us in securing the PLP. OHS was frustrated at times in the process and the slow pace and lack of urgency. Now that the PLP is in place, we would like to see Mercury International held to the terms that they agreed to when the PLP was put in place. Angie Carpenter and I spoke about this at length recently and she was contacting the town attorney on how we can proceed.” 

After the major vandalism that occurred on or about Aug. 2, Carpenter met with the chief fire marshal and Cook to survey the damage and engage in dialogue for how to better secure the property.

Carpenter said that being a private property, not under Town of Islip jurisdiction complicates matters, but that she had been urging Suffolk County Police Department to increase their presence and drive-by patrol of the mansion.

Carpenter sent a letter to the police commissioner to make the mansion a relief point for SCPD, which is a meeting spot for change of duty between officers, as this would “automatically create police presence” that might deter vandals or other criminal activity.

In addition, Carpenter has asked that police en route from parks or marinas within Islip Town in the Idle Hour area make a pass down the mansion to further increase police activity.