Crime Watch

The Bane of Bainbridge Avenue

A man was asked to pay to get his lost cell phone back. At 7:10 PM on Monday, March 31, a 24-year-old man from River Edge, NJ left his phone with its case and a debit card at a chain Mexican restaurant on Maiden Lane. When he realized that he had left his phone in the restaurant, he began tracking the device and he canceled the card. He tracked the phone to Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx before it was turned off. One unauthorized charge for $6.29 had turned up on the card at a fast food restaurant on Third Avenue in the Bronx. The victim later called his phone, and an unknown man identifying himself as Jay offered to sell the phone back. The stolen phone was an iPhone 5S valued at $500. The victim also lost a MetroCard worth $10 that was in the phone case.

Conference Haul

Someone stole a woman's laptop from a hotel conference room. At 10:20 AM on Thursday, March 27, a 29-year-old woman from Walden, NY, was attending a conference at a hotel on West Street. She left the conference room to take a coffee break, leaving her laptop bag and a purse with her wallet under her chair. When she returned twenty minutes later, the laptop and bag were missing, and her wallet had been taken from her purse. Approximately 160 to 190 people were attending the conference, but there no witnesses to the theft. The stolen laptop was a Dell Latitude valued at $1,200, and the victim's wallet had contained several credit cards plus her New York State driver's license.

Lost, Mom and Dad

A woman left an engraved Rolex watch in a gym. At 7:30 PM on Monday, March 24, a 25-year-old woman placed her Rolex watch in a cup holder while she attended a spin class at a gym on Wall Street. She returned home before she realized that she had left her watch at the gym. She returned to the facility about an hour later and found that her Rolex was gone from the cup holder. She spoke to numerous gym employees, but no one had seen the watch. Her Rolex was engraved with the message, "Love Mom and dad."

Be Careful What You Say

A man was struck after making a joke at someone else's expense. At 1 AM on Saturday, March 29, a 34-year-old man was talking to an acquaintance at a bar on Pearl Street when a friend showed up. The man and his acquaintance made a joke at the friend's expense, and one of the friend's buddies walked up and punched the man in his right eye, causing a bloody and swollen black-and-blue eye. The victim was treated at a nearby hospital and informed that he would need surgery for a fractured orbital bone. Video is available of the assault.

Rambling Ramblers

Four men shoplifted jeans from a clothing store. At 10:55 AM on Friday, March 28, four young men aged 18 to 21 entered a clothing store on Broadway and removed property from store shelves. They left the store without paying for the merchandise, setting off alarms as they exited. Video is available of the theft. Stolen were five pairs of Rambler lye-washed jeans valued at $970, 10 pairs of Rambler bleached jeans valued at $2,950, and two Herschel backpacks costing $178. The total amount shoplifted came to $4,098.