Hydrant Caps May Need to Have a Lock and Key While 4/20 is a day that commemorates many events, some good and some bad, it will now stand out in the mind of a Upper East Side business owner as the day his store was almost robbed. At 7 p.m. on Friday, after an employee had closed up the jewelry shop on Madison Avenue, an eyewitness walked past the shop and noticed that the door had been cracked but not shattered and a fire hydrant cap lay nearby. Police state that the cap was taken from a hydrant on East 75th Street. After the botched attempt to gain entry, the unknown perp fled the scene. No footage of the burglar was caught on tape. Third Time is the Charm While no connections have been made as of yet, two more attempts at burglaries were carried out in very close succession. One yielded nothing but a broken window for a department store on Madison, but one unlucky jewelry storeowner will have to fix much more than a broken front door. If it was the same crook, he or she had their second strike of the weekend at a department store at 2:45 a.m., where another fire hydrant cap was used to create a makeshift entrance. Again, resilient windows and an eyewitness who heard a loud crash foiled the plan. After booking it, the thief, now with two strikes under their belt, pitched a home run when yet another fire hydrant cap took out the door to an upscale jewelry store on Madison Avenue. The crook entered the premises and emptied one of the cabinets, which held 50 or 60 Lanciani watches valued at about $510,000. In both instances, nobody laid eyes on the burglar, who is still at large. Robbing the Youth In an age where children grow up side-by-side with emerging technologies, it is unfortunate that they become targets for scum who are looking to make a big cash-out by robbing young kids. On Friday, April 20, at 4:30 p.m., two young teens were walking home from school on East 84th Street between First and Second avenues when two men approached the victims from behind, grabbing one of them and threatening them with a gun. Although the filth never brandished said weapon, they demanded, "Give me everything you've got or I will kill you." The kids emptied their pockets of their wallets, IDs and respective Apple products. Neither of the young boys were hurt, but the spineless crooks made a successful getaway. No arrests have been made so far. No Class Among Thieves Not too far away from the aforementioned robbery, at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, another teenager was victim of a stick-up by two individuals. The high school student was walking on East 85th Street when he was approached from behind and grabbed across the face. One of the men told him to empty his pockets or they would shoot him. Again, no gun was produced, but the child smartly complied, handing over his iPhone, MetroCard and wallet.