Crime Watch

Compiled by Megan Bungeroth KIDDIE ROBBERY Last week, a local man came home around 11:30 a.m. to his apartment on Columbus Avenue, which he shares with three roommates, to find two complete strangers rummaging through their stuff. The perps fled on foot, and police were able to apprehend one 27-year-old suspect, who was caught in possession of a controlled substance and arrested. The other suspect, still on the loose, was described as a 12-year-old boy. WINDOW SMASHING Unknown criminals had a window-breaking party along Columbus Avenue in the early morning hours last Monday. Police responded to a report of broken glass at a veterinary hospital, and upon investigating found the offices had been disturbed. The animal doctor's next-door neighbor, a dry cleaner, also had its front window smashed in. The manager of the cleaners said that $150 in cash was missing. RECURRING CHARGES An Upper West Side woman reported to police a revolving headache of fraud and theft through her American Express account. The company had contacted her in June to inform her of over $15,000 in fraudulent charges on her account, including $2,451 on airline tickets and a total of $10,700 spent online at the websites of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. GARDEN TOOL ATTACK Police arrested a 23-year-old woman at the Amsterdam Houses last Thursday for assault after her boyfriend called them in. The woman was hitting him repeatedly on his arms and legs with a rake, "causing substantial pain," according to the report-all while the man was holding the assailant's young son in his arms. A PRICEY VACATION Upon returning to her West 74th Street apartment after a vacation of several months, a woman reported to police that much of her jewelry was missing. She said that the only people with access to her apartment during the time she was away was a cleaning crew that came in on June 30. The missing jewelry included Tiffany earrings and a bracelet, a diamond necklace, platinum earrings and a diamond bracelet, worth a total of $89,000. HEATED DISCUSSION A 43-year-old woman was arrested for assault last Thursday when police responded to a call from her male companion. He said that the two of them had been drinking and talking together when she got angry at him and threw a glass bottle at his head. The bottle broke and sliced his face open, causing a wound that later required three staples to close. The victim also said that the perpetrator punched and scratched him in the chest and neck, causing more lacerations and bruises. HOME AIDE MAY HAVE HELPED HERSELF Police suspect a former home aide to an older woman took advantage of her employer's absence from her apartment to rob her. The 65-year-old victim was hospitalized for several months, and said that her former aide had access to her apartment during that time. When she returned home, she saw that $27,670 worth of her jewelry, including an $8,000 diamond ring and her wedding bands, were gone.