You Decide: Top Crime Story of 2011

New Hyde Park isn’t typically known for its bouts with crime, but rather crimes in the surrounding areas. However, the neighborhood did experience its fair share of scandals, robberies and scams over the year.

Help decide the biggest business stories this year. Take our simple poll attached at the bottom.

SAT/ACT SCANDAL: Current and former students at North Shore schools faced arrests in an that first shook Great Neck North High School in September. Sen. Jack Martins related this scandal to the epidemic of and that this type of fraud could happen right here in our neighborhood.

NASSAU-WIDE ATM SCAM: caught two men who were more than $17,000 from ATM machines at various Citibanks around Nassau County. The men faced multiple felony counts of grand larceny after their arrest and were arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead.

NASSAU POLICE OFFICER KILLED: Nassau County and MTA police officials investigated why Geoffrey J. Breitkopf, 40, a Nassau plain-clothed police officer was while in Massapequa Park. Breitkopf was in March as uniformed officers from around the region lined up in rows five-to-seven deep to watch the procession. This crime marked the  for Nassau police. Prior, no county cops had been killed in the line of duty since 1993.

ROBBERY AND FRUAD AT CVS: According to the , a  employee tried to stop a man from leaving the store without paying for some over-the-counter drugs. The 65-year-old CVS employee who subsequently punched the employee in the face and then left the store. Three months later, a man flashing a badge on in the CVS parking lot. The 90-year-old man was approached by a man who said he was investigating a counterfeiting case and asked for money.

SERIAL LONG ISLAND BANK ROBBER: At least six armed robberies on Long Island and upstate appeared to be the work of one man, who was described as the Suffolk County Police later of the serial bank robber and cash, a police scanner and air gun were recovered.

MAN DROWNS IN BACKYARD POOL: A 51-year-old man after jumping into his backyard pool on Lake Drive, according to the . CPR was performed on him in the backyard and he was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

STRING OF ROBBERIES: Christopher Cialone, 27, of New Hyde Park, was arrested in connection with a in January. Cialone was charged with robbery in the third degree, attempted robbery in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, which is from a previous warrant, reported. In March, a at Pathmark in North New Hyde Park. The woman was pushed into a display rack after confronting the man. Three months later in June, at Port Café when two men took an unspecified amount of money from the cash register. Lastly, was when a male subject entered TD Bank, located at 540 Jericho Turnpike, and passed a bank employee a note which threatened force and demanded . The bank was  as well.

AMERICANA MANHASSET ROBBERY: Four Brooklyn men were arrested for a , located in the Americana Manhasset shopping center, according to . The men were arrested without incident in the Lake Success Country Club vicinity, and the fifth suspect was not apprehended, and is still being sought after.

GREAT NECK MAN ARRESTED FOR KIDNAPPING: Kings Point Police , 50, of Great Neck who was suspected of  before releasing her unharmed in Kings Point in November. Kashimallak was charged with second degree kidnapping and first degree sexual abuse. He was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead.

NEARLY 100 CAGED CATS DISCOVERED: Nearly were discovered at  with “no food or water in sight,” News 12 reported. The cats – many of them likely pets – were found after a woman seeking her missing cat called police when she heard the sound of crying animals. This crime is still under investigation.