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.

iPad Snatch
A 33-year-old man told police that he was walking on the grounds of the Amsterdam Houses on Saturday morning when two men in their early twenties, one wielding a black handgun, approached him. The perp carrying the gun told the man, “Don’t say anything. Give me the iPad.” The man handed over his iPad, worth $799, and the two robbers darted into 217 W. 63rd St. in the housing complex.

Designer Thief
Two men entered the Sunglass Hut at Broadway and 79th Street Friday afternoon seeking designer shades. One of the employees in the store at the time, a 29-year-old woman, recognized the men from a previous crime. As the men approached, the employee and a co-worker told them to get out. But that didn’t dissuade them—the men began to grab multiple pairs of sunglasses from a rack near the door, snatching $1,520 worth of shades, all of them by Gucci and Prada. When the co-worker tried to take the glasses away from the culprits, one of the men pushed her away. The two men fled on foot out the door.

Forged Checks
Someone cloned a 68-year-old man’s checks from his checking account and used his personal information to transfer funds from one account to another, the man told police on Friday at 11 a.m. The forged checks totaled $26,000, and the man doesn’t know the people who deposited them.

Street Attack
A 45-year-old woman told police that a heavyset woman wearing a black do-rag hit her with an unknown object just after 4:30 a.m. on June 20, causing a small cut to her neck. The woman was removed to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment. Police said the woman was uncooperative and hostile, telling inconsistent stories.

Mystery Mace
As a 63-year-old Asian man walked on West 74th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues on Friday evening, a 39-year-old man sprayed him with an unknown substance in a pink bottle, causing pain and swelling to his eye and the left side of his face. The older man was taken to Roosevelt Hospital and the perp was arrested that same day.

iPhone Grab
A 14-year-old boy was walking southbound on the east side of West End Avenue between West 77th and 78th streets on the evening of June 20 when two unknown men approached him. The taller of the men asked the boy, “Can I see your phone?” The men surrounded the boy, who told police that he was fearful for his safety. The boy handed his iPhone to one of the men and continued walking southbound without looking back. He didn’t notice in which direction the robbers fled.

Picture of a Crime
When a Japanese tourist paused to take photos on the southeast corner of Central Park West and West 66th Street on the evening of June 17, he didn’t realize that placing his black Tumi bag on the ground next to him would cause a problem. As he snapped a shot, someone picked up his bag, containing a $325 Gucci Wallet, $800 in cash, Japanese currency and a Japanese passport, and immediately fled.

Home Invasion
Last Thursday night, a masked man pushed his way into an apartment on West 81st Street, brandishing what appeared to be a silver weapon to the startled male victim who answered the door. The suspect, who police said is known only as “Anthony,” told his male victim to shut up and get on the ground, then went into the living room where a woman was sleeping and told her to get on the ground as well. When she got onto her knees, he hit her in the back of the head and tied her hands. The invader then forced both victims into the bedroom, where he demanded the code to their safe and withdrew $4,700 in cash, then fled the apartment. The suspect is still at large.

Not-So-Friendly Friend
A woman called police last week to report a theft by her one-time Facebook friend. She said that she met the man on the social networking site and had been having a consensual sexual relationship with him. At their most recent tryst at the Comfort Inn Motel on West 71st Street, she asked her companion to fetch a few items from her car. When he did not
return, she checked the vehicle and discovered that her pal had grabbed $3,000 in cash and left her. Sounds like a solid case for de-friending.

Prank Callers
A worker at the Martin Luther King School reported that while she was a work, an unknown person snatched her $600 iPhone out of her bag and made 39 unauthorized calls on the cell phone before she could freeze her account.

Grabby Hands
On Saturday, a 61-year-old woman waited patiently in line at a TD Bank location to make a deposit. The customer in line behind her, a 60-year-old woman, was not so patient, and reached into the victim’s purse to lift $400 in cash. The thief was promptly arrested.

No Saving Seats
A patron of the arts attended an event at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall last week and placed her bag on the empty seat next to her. She was so riveted by the evening’s entertainment that she didn’t notice until later that her black Chanel purse, worth $3,000 on its own, was gone. The purse also contained a $1,000 Gucci wallet, a $499 iPhone, a $200 Blackberry and $400 in cash, as well as credit cards.

Angel Assault
Last Wednesday, scared residents of the Amsterdam Houses NYCHA development called police as a man high on the drug known as angel dust terrorized everyone who walked through the lobby. The crazed man threatened anyone who passed, including kids, and refused to leave. When police arrived, they tried to subdue the man, but he was able to
punch one of the officers square in the face, breaking his glasses and giving him
a nasty laceration. The man continued flailing his arms and contorting his body
to avoid the handcuffs that police eventually slapped on him, and they discovered two bags of the illegal drug in his pockets. The man was arrested and brought to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment.

Baby as Decoy
A couple walked into a Duane Reade last Thursday pushing a baby stroller, a normal sight until an employee noticed that they were stashing several varieties of Crest White Strips under the carriage. They were able to fit 21 boxes, worth a total of $1,025, into the stroller, then fled the store. Now police are on the lookout for a couple with extremely bright smiles.

Crime Really Doesn’t Pay
Three teenage boys were walking home from school from school last week when three other boys approached them and demanded their money and wallets. When the trio of would-be victims refused and kept walking down Broadway, the thieving threesome followed and managed to grab $2 from one of the boys. Now all three are wanted for robbery, with less than a buck each to show for their misdeeds.

Courtesy of Buzz Bishop

Old Spice Crook
A man was arrested at a local Duane Reade last week after attempting to abscond with a whopping 299 sticks of Old Spice deodorant. (Does anybody sweat that much?) The presumably odoriferous shoplifter also injured an employee who tried to stop him from leaving the store.

Depraved Assault on a Child
Police were alerted last week to the plight of an 8-year-old girl living in the Amsterdam Houses with suspicious injuries on her left hand. When they investigated, officers determined that the girl’s mother had allegedly burned her hand with a fork as punishment for “taking her sister’s tampons.” The mother told cops that her daughter burned herself accidentally while ironing clothes, but her story didn’t jive with the poor girl’s injury and she was arrested on felonious assault charges. The case has been referred to the Special Victims Unit.

Mucous-Free Shoplifter
Last Tuesday at 9:45 a.m., an unknown man waltzed into a local CVS pharmacy and sauntered out with 40 stolen packs of Mucinex, an over-the-counter med meant to combat mucous and coughs. The total haul is worth $1,150, so the thief most likely intends either to get some crystal-clear nasal passages or make a hefty profit reselling the drug on the street.

Bad Boyfriend
A 37-year-old woman called the police after her live-in boyfriend took his alcoholic rage out on her. The woman reported that her drunken mate got angry and attempted to strangle her, then slammed her against a wall and held her there so she couldn’t escape his grasp. He eventually let go and ran off, allowing the victim a chance to call for help.

False Phone Friends
When checking her most recent cell phone bill, a local woman noticed a few extraneous charges—namely that two iPhones had been purchased with her account and a stranger had been added as an “authorized user,” enabling him to change her plan to accommodate the two new phone lines.

Don’t Tempt Thieves
Most criminals can’t resist an easy target, as a local man discovered last week when he placed his wallet on the inside window ledge of his ground-floor apartment on West 78th Street. An unknown person spotted it, and snagged the wallet, attempting four credit card purchases with the stolen loot.

Amsterdam Houses residents got the ear of their local Council member, Community Board 7 and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) officials to discuss their concerns.

The tenants gave their visitors a walkthrough of the 13-building public housing complex on 218 W. 64th St. They explained the need for more youth program funding, problems with the city’s Centralized Call Center (CCC), the intrusion of private-sector garbage on the public housing complex’s grounds and the potential benefits to landmarking the houses.

Upper West Side Council Member Gale Brewer said she is trying to secure more funding for 18- to 25-year-olds so they can have more opportunities at the nearby Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center on West 65th Street.

Margarita Curet, president of the residents association, called the children’s services run through the center promising. The complex was working with other groups to provide more opportunities for teenagers, including a recently introduced dance program.

Victor Gonzalez, co-chair of the Community Board 7’s housing committee, sympathized with tenant concerns that the Centralized Call Center—a pilot program that gives residents a number to report maintenance problems—slowed down the current building’s repair process.

Before the program was implemented two years ago, Gonzalez said, problems were handled more efficiently because complaints went directly to the property maintenance supervisor.

Now, complaints go through customer service representatives at the call center. Tenants said that under the new system, maintenance workers came to fix the wrong problems, wait times were longer and communication was worse.

“It’s apparent the CCC is not taking down the correct information,” Gonzalez said. “The CCC definitely needs to be tweaked.”

Curet showed a form she has handed out to tenants to record the exact date and ticket number for their complaints in hopes of clearing up CCC mistakes.

During a brief tour of the Amsterdam Houses grounds, Gonzalez and residents passed by a large pile of trash bags from an adjacent private-sector building, which sat on the edge of a roadway and a sidewalk on the public complex.

NYCHA Housing Manager Clarence Gordon said there had been meetings to try solving the problem, which has attracted rats.

“If sanitation is not fining them they’ll continue to do it,” Gordon said.

NYCHA Deputy Director Gene Palumbo said exterminators do come three times a week to treat the grounds.

The group also passed by a play area that is little more than benches and a series of crawling tunnels and not as well-used as a public playground just a short walk away. A green committee has talked about renovating the area, but there are no definite plans yet.

Gonzalez said more communication with the property maintenance supervisor would help the green committee’s efforts. Palumbo, on a related note, said any tenant could submit a proposal to start a garden on the grounds.

“There are tons of opportunities if someone wants them,” Brewer said at the meeting.

Brewer also discussed fear among residents that the 60-year-old Amsterdam Houses could be sold to private developers. Brewer said the landmarking would be a “source of pride” and allay fears of being bought.

However, she added, “I am sure that these buildings will never get sold, but there is that fear.”

Joe Seabrook, the detective that died two months after assisting in a drug bust at the Amsterdam Houses last March, was honored Aug. 14.

Seabrook’s parents received a plaque from the Amsterdam Houses Tenants Association at a Family Day event. The tenants recognized the detective’s work in the investigation that led to the March 16 arrests of 28 suspected drug dealers, which started with tenants’ complaints.

Seabrook, a former narcotics detective, was part of a six-officer team that patrolled the Amsterdam Houses, the 13-building public housing complex that stretches from West 61st to 65th streets. He used his training in narcotics to target a drug operation that was set up in five buildings. His information sparked the investigation in spring 2009. Seabrook’s work is credited with dismantling the drug dealing.

“These officers were able to develop relationships of trust and confidence with the residents, attributes that were instrumental in obtaining valuable information,” New York Housing Authority wrote in a statement.

Margarita Curet, the tenant association president, said residents of the Amsterdam Houses could come to Seabrook and his fellow officers with their concerns.

“They felt comfortable with them and Detective Seabrook,” Curet said. “I feel a little bit safer than before. He was a great officer.”

After the bust, Seabrook, a father of two girls, suffered a stroke and was later diagnosed with leukemia. He died May 29 at a Bronx hospital.

The 13-building complex, which stretches from West 61st to 65th streets, is near several schools, including Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Beacon High School and P.S. 191. In fact, law enforcement officials observed high school students being recruited and trained as lookouts and dealers during the nine-month probe into the drug operation. Three high school students were arrested in the drug bust.

The investigation was sparked by tenant complaints about heavy foot traffic in hallways and drug paraphernalia littering stairwells.