Crime Watch

Compiled by Amanda Woods STREET ATTACK As a 36-year-old man was walking southbound from 96th Street on Lexington Avenue on Tuesday, someone punched him from behind. When the man turned to defend himself, someone else punched him. The man suffered pain and small cuts on the inside of his upper lip and chin. The attackers, a 19-year-old and a 25-year-old, were arrested on the southwest corner of East 93rd Street. BREAK-IN AND CASH GRAB On Saturday evening, someone cut the security gate of Max Cleaners on East 81st Street between York and East End avenues and entered through the front door, which is usually left unsecured. The person then snatched $200 from the cash register and the establishment's TV monitor. LOOTING FOR LIQUOR One Upper East Side thief raided a local eatery for a significant supply of booze early Monday morning. The person got access to La Turka Restaurant on the corner of Second Avenue and East 74th Street when he broke the East 74th Street entrance with an unknown object. Inside, the culprit grabbed $500 worth of assorted liquor bottles and fled the store in an unknown direction. TEXTING TROUBLE Texting while walking cost one Upper East Sider her phone this weekend. A 29-year-old woman told police that on Sunday night, she got off a city bus on East 96th Street and Lexington Avenue and began walking along East 95th Street while texting on her phone. As she walked, a man came up behind her, knocked her to the ground and snatched her iPhone, worth $300. The man then fled toward Lexington Avenue. The woman tried to chase him, but lost sight of him near East 95th and Park Avenue. When the woman used the "Find My iPhone" application, it pointed her to East 110th Street, but police canvassing of the area could not locate the phone. EVENING GUEST NIGHTMARE A 24-year-old man told police he was intoxicated when he brought a girl home to his First Avenue apartment near 91st Street after having drinks at the Brass Monkey Bar on West 12th Street. When he woke up, he discovered both of his iPhones, one personal and one for business, as well as his debit card, were missing. When the man contacted Bank of America, he learned that his card had incurred $6,000 in fraudulent charges. The man suspects that the woman he brought home, in her mid-20s, was responsible for both the phone robberies and the debit card charges. FOOD CART FIASCO One 18-year-old man's attempt to get away with free food failed this weekend. The young man was arrested on Saturday at 4 p.m. after he attempted to grab a handful of food from a cart on the northeast corner of East 86th Street and Third Avenue and punched the 48-year-old cart vendor in the face, causing an abrasion to his right cheek.