Crime Watch
Out for a Stroller
A tourist's baby stroller - but thankfully not the baby - was stolen on Lexington Avenue. At 5 PM on Tuesday, November 19, a 66-year-old woman from Montserrat, Mexico left her wallet in a baby stroller outside a coffee shop on Lexington Avenue. When she returned five minutes later, the stroller and her wallet were gone. The items stolen were a blue Maclaren stroller valued at $400, $50 in cash, a Missouri driver's license, a black vinyl wallet, a Medicare card, various credit and airline cards, and a Blue Cross/Blue Shield card.
Urgent Crime
Someone stole a hospital patient's wallet. At 8 AM on Sunday, November 17, a 76-year-old man from Brooklyn was lying in bed in the urgent care center of a hospital on East 67th Street. He had his pants, with his wallet in a pocket, next to him. The man awoke to find an unknown 50-year-old man sitting in the visitor's chair sleeping. The unknown man awoke and left. The patient then discovered that his wallet and pants were gone. He called his credit card companies and found that unauthorized charges had turned up on his American Express card but not his Chase card. Hospital security video may have captured the incident. The stolen items were his pants and wallet, $150 in cash, a New York State driver's license, his house key, health insurance card, and various credit cards.
Unvased
Two women shoplifted an expensive vase from an antique store. At 3:49 PM on Saturday, November 16, a woman entered an antique store on Third Avenue accompanied by another woman and asked about buying a gift in the price range of around $600. The store employee, a 66-year-old man, later told police that the two women distracted him by asking questions and walking around the store looking at various items. The women then decided that they did not want to buy anything and walked out of the store rather quickly. The employee suspected that they might have taken something, so he looked around and discovered that a precious vase was missing from a display case. He reviewed the store security video and saw one of the women taking the vase and putting it under her dress before leaving the store. The vase stolen was a René Lalique, 8-1/2 inches high and 7 inches in diameter, valued at $2,500.
On Bad Authority
Unauthorized charges appeared on a man's credit card account. At 12 noon on Friday, November 15, a 47-year-old man living on East 76th Street was reviewing his current American Express transaction history, when he discovered that unknown persons had obtained his credit card information and charged approximately $22,000 to his account without permission or authorization.
A swindler posing as police conned an elderly woman. At 3 PM on Monday, November 18, a 90-year-old woman living on East 87th Street received a phone call from an unknown man pretending to be part of a New York State Police investigation unit. The man told the woman she needed to remove money from her bank account and give it to him to keep it safe. Accompanied by her home health aide, she met the man in front of a luggage store. They met twice; the first time, she gave the man $10,000 and the second time, $25,000. Video is available of the two meetings. In all, the fake cop took her for $35,000.