Last Sunday, in the early morning, a 48-year-old woman from New Jersey was walking along West End Avenue when a young man approached her from behind, grabbed her and ripped her purse from her shoulder. The perp took off running, but a doorman at a nearby building saw the entire incident and chased him and another teenager who joined him in running. The doorman was able to chase the two thieves, who were 18 and 16 years old, into his building’s courtyard, where they dropped the purse before being apprehended by police and arrested. The woman’s purse, which contained $75 in cash and several credit cards, was returned to her, thanks to the valiant doorman looking out for his neighborhood.

Senior Swindle

As financial crimes and scams are on the rise, checking one’s bank statements often has become more of a necessity than ever before. A 74-year-old Upper West Side resident learned that the hard way when he received a statement from Chase Bank informing him of several suspicious withdrawals. An unknown person had taken a total of $21,896 from the man’s checking and savings accounts in three separate incidents and had apparently used the money to pay Sears and Capitol One credit card bills taken out in the victim’s name, unbeknownst to him.

Cleaning Up Jewelry

A local woman reported to police that she suspected two men whom she had hired to clean her carpets had also absconded with some pricey jewelry. The woman said that the two men from a local carpet cleaning service had come to her home on West 81st Street last Tuesday, and on Wednesday, she discovered she was missing two items that had been in a jewelry box in her bedroom, where one of the men had been working. The victim had an appraisal report for her diamond tennis bracelet, valuing it at $8,387, and a store receipt for her gold crystal necklace, showing she had paid $9,587 for it. Police have not made any arrests yet.

Roomies Scammed

Two people living at the same West End Avenue address filed separate police reports last week to report that they had both been ripped off. Each told police that an unknown person had stolen, forged and cashed two checks from their respective accounts. The man reported that two consecutive checks from his Citibank account for $2,760 and $3,200 were written and cashed at an unknown location without his knowledge. The woman reported that two consecutive checks for $2,600 and $3,225 from her Chase account met the same fate. Police reports did not specify any suspects or say whether the police are looking for one person.

Persistence Doesn’t Pay

Last Friday, a 14-year-old boy was walking from a bus stop toward West 81st Street when two unknown men approached him and asked him for the time. When the boy responded, the men asked to see his phone, and the boy responded that he didn’t have one and kept walking. The men followed him, putting their arms around him in a not-too-friendly way and quietly informing their target that one of them had a gun and another had a knife. When they again demanded the boy’s phone as well as his wallet, the victim was forced to empty his pockets to prove that he did not, in fact, have either and that they had picked the wrong person to rob. The perps finally got the message and left the boy alone.

“He’s a quintessential New York guy,” said Elizabeth Pasmantier, 38, a tenant for more than 10 years. “He does remind me of Frank Sinatra. He always has the perfect joke for any situation and endless stories. He’s a colorful character who puts a smile on your face.”

Frank Bonanno took a position as a summer relief worker at 450 E. 63rd St. and soon made himself indispensable. Photo by Andrew Scwartz

But it’s not just Bonanno’s big personality that endears him to his Upper East Side tenants. He’s also a natural at the work.

“I really took to the job, and I guess the job took to me,” he said. “I like it and enjoy it very much.”

Bonanno, whose grandparents emigrated to the United States from Italy, grew up on Mulberry Street in traditional Little Italy. His family started a small deli on the corner of Prince and Lafayette streets, which is now dining hotspot Delicatessen.

He moved uptown to East Harlem in 1979 when he married his wife Kathy, 63, and had a daughter, who is now 29. Bonanno took a position as a summer relief worker on East 63rd Street and soon made himself indispensable.

“The fellas there liked my work and asked me if I would stay on and I said, ‘Sure, why not,’” he said.

Bonanno has worked the same 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift, Sunday to Thursday, ever since. He has barely missed a scheduled day’s work in that time, come rain, wind or fire. Bonanno has proved reliable at tackling the last of those things.

Around 10 years ago, one of the three buildings in the complex caught fire. He evacuated the top floors and had begun to quell the flames when firefighters arrived. That was all in the line of duty, according to the modest doorman.

“I did what I had to do and that was it,” Bonanno said. “I got a call from the police department and the officer called me a hero. But I told him, ‘What was I going to do?’ Someone had to do something.”

Others disagree and think that once again Bonanno went beyond expectations.

“He behaved heroically with the fire. He’s a classic kind of guy,” said Francis Barany, 52, a resident in the building since 1985. “Like the neighborhood cop—except you don’t have them anymore in Manhattan—Frank is the neighborhood doorman.”

Barany has raised two daughters in the building, with a little help from Bonanno along the way. The pair used to walk the lobby together as the new father would cradle his now 16-year-old daughter to sleep.

“A lot of people are motivated by money, but not Frank. He’s motivated by doing a good job,” Barany said. “He watched everybody in the neighborhood grow up. It’s very rare to have that.”