FAILED PHONE THEFT

A 14-year-old boy attempted to steal a woman’s phone on Wednesday, Dec. 12, but was foiled by a good Samaritan. The 33-year-old woman stopped along East 83rd Street to make a call at around 3:30 p.m. When she finished, the teen ran up and grabbed the phone from her hand and fled. The woman chased after him, yelling to attract the attention of bystanders. The teen pulled away, but when the woman reached Lexington Avenue, a man approached her with the phone, an iPhone 5, and said that he had gotten it from the thief. The woman described the teen to a nearby police officer and, after a quick search, officers apprehended the boy, who was arrested for grand larceny.

UNATTENDED BAG GOES MISSING

A woman lost her handbag in a bar on Sunday, Dec. 23, when she left it unattended. The 48-year-old had been enjoying a night with a friend in a bar on First Avenue until she realized around 1 a.m. that the bag had vanished. She did not see anyone take it, so she and the bar’s workers searched around the room for it, but found nothing. She lost two credit cards, an iPhone 4s, another cellphone and $300 cash. The thief remains unidentified and at large.

CO-WORKER BEEF

A young woman was recently assaulted by a former co-worker outside a Third Avenue confectionery. The woman, an 18-year-old Bronx resident, was leaving work shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, when her 24-year-old female ex-co-worker approached her and the two got into an argument. Anger turned into blows when the co-worker started repeatedly punching the teen in the head, leaving her injured as she fled scene. The attacker remains at large and is wanted for assault.

ANOTHER CO-WORKER PUNCH-UP

Two co-workers got into a fight on East 86th Street on Monday, Dec. 24, that left one of the men bleeding. At about 9:30 p.m., the two began arguing on the street, and the older co-worker, a 33-year-old, decided to end the argument by punching the younger worker in the face several times, which gave him a bloody nose. The attacker fled the scene and is wanted for assault.

CANDY STORE BURGLARY

A candy store on Madison Avenue was robbed overnight on Friday, Dec. 21. A worker showed up at the store the following morning and found that $434 had been stolen from cash registers and nearly $3,000 was missing from the store’s safe. According to the worker, the registers, the safe and the store’s front door were locked when she arrived, and there were no signs of forced entry. No surveillance cameras were on the premises to aid the identification of the robber(s).

FAKE BUILDING EMPLOYEE

A thief-in-disguise managed to swipe an iPad from a medical office on Park Avenue by pretending to be a building employee. The unidentified robber, described as 5’2” and around 40 years old, walked into the office on Friday, Dec. 21, and asked a young worker to turn off the office’s water so that the plumbing could be checked. The worker complied, then the fake employee asked her to clean under the office’s sink so that its pipes could be viewed.

After she completed that task, the thief left the office, and the worker returned to her desk to find that her $500 iPad was missing. The worker contacted the building management and learned that no one had been given permission to check the office’s plumbing. No other items were reported stolen, and the impostor remains at large.

CANE ATTACK
An elderly man reported being caned by an acquaintance on Friday. According to the 81-year-old West 73rd Street resident, he was standing outside a store on West 72nd Street around 6 in the morning in September when a man he knew approached him and hit him twice on the side of the face with an aluminum walking cane. The reason for the attack was not reported, but the victim said that he remains fearful for his safety. He waited to be advised by a city social worker to report the case. The attacker remains at large and is wanted for assault.

BACKPACK SWIPE
A 29-year-old man was grabbing a quick bite at a fast food restaurant on Saturday when his backpack was snatched from right beneath his feet. The West 95th Street resident stopped by the restaurant on Broadway at 7 p.m. to eat. After he had ordered, he sat down with his food and put his backpack on the floor. 10 minutes later, he happened to look down and saw that the backpack was missing. Along with the pack, the victim lost an iPad, a Lenovo ThinkPad, a textbook and his wallet with two credit cards and $100 cash. Police have yet to gather any details on the thief.

ONE HEAVY ROBBERY
An unknown robber or group of robbers broke into a diner on Tuesday, Dec. 11, and got away with $100 in coins. The robber(s) approached the restaurant on West 67th Street at 5 a.m. and smashed the front window to enter. Once inside, the perp(s) located a toolbox beneath the cash register that contained a bunch of coins—200 quarters, 600 nickels and 200 dimes ($50, $30 and $20, respectively). The perps managed to lug the toolbox out of the store and escape without being detected. No security cameras were in the diner or around the area, and the robber(s) are now wanted for burglary.

BAD BULLY
A 12-year-old boy was robbed on Amsterdam Avenue on Monday, Dec. 12. The boy was walking home with a group of friends in the middle of the afternoon when a teenaged stranger approached the group and asked the boy if he could use his cellphone. The boy refused, so the teen grabbed the boy around the neck. He reached into the boy’s pocket and snatched his wallet, then ran on the street toward Columbus Avenue. The teen has yet to be identified and is wanted for robbery.

SCAFFOLDING MOTOR HEIST
A scaffolding company reported last week that two motors were stolen from the top of one of their scaffolds in a residential building on West End Avenue. The motors were last seen on top of the scaffold on Friday, Dec. 7, then were found to be missing last Wednesday. Video surveillance of the area might be able to help police identify the thief or thieves. The motors were worth $10,000 each.

VIOLENT BOYFRIEND
A domestic dispute left a young woman bleeding and bitten last Friday. The 23-year-old victim reported that she was hanging out with friends in her West 65th Street apartment in the evening, then got into a fight with her 21-year-old boyfriend. During the dispute, the boyfriend kicked open a door, grabbed the woman by her hair and bit her on the neck. The woman retreated to the bathroom, but the boyfriend forced his way in and used a shard from a candle holder that he broke to slash her right hand. The woman went to the police after the incident, and the boyfriend was arrested for assault.

FORGOTTEN ELECTRONICS
A man lost numerous electronic devices in an elevator on Friday. The 56-year-old was riding up to his apartment on West 72nd Street around 5 p.m. and accidentally left a bag behind. Inside the bag was a Macbook, an iPad, two cameras and binoculars, which combined with other items and the bag itself were worth almost $3,500. The man used Apple’s GPS tracking feature to pinpoint the location of his property at another building down his street, whose doorman revealed that only one resident lived there. Police spoke with the resident, who claims to know nothing about the incident.

NEWSSTAND BREAK-IN
A news vendor returned to his stand on Broadway early in the morning of Monday, Nov. 19, and found that he had been robbed. An unknown perp managed to remove a lock on the front gate and enter the stand. Inside, the crook swiped $6,380 in cash and $2,400 worth of cigarette cartons. The vendor, a Queens resident, reported the robbery to the police, but a suspect has yet to be identified.

KNIFE-POINT ROBBERY
A man was robbed while leaving the subway early in the morning on Tuesday, Nov. 20. The 38-year-old was passing through a turnstile at 72nd Street Station around 5:30 a.m. when a thief grabbed him and threw him against the wall. A second thief appeared with a knife, and the first said, “I should kill you.” The thieves removed the man’s property and forced him to remove his sneakers, which they did not steal, then fled the scene. The man reported the crime to police after he left the station. The two thieves remain at large.

JACKET HEIST
An unknown number of thieves stole jackets from a clothing store on Broadway by smashing one of its windows. The burglary occurred around midnight on Monday, Nov. 19, when the crook(s) used a brick to shatter the store’s side window, then reached into the store and grabbed three Geox down jackets worth $315 each. Cameras were on the scene, but police have yet to identify the criminal(s).

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.

Break In, Steal, Repeat
From Thursday, May 3 through Saturday, May 6, an unknown criminal broke into 18 different cars in the Upper East Side and stole personal effects ranging from loose papers to GPS devices. The robberies took place between East 94th and East 98th Streets on Lexington, Park, Madison, Third and Fifth avenues between 4 p.m. and midnight. In each case, the perpetrator would break the driver or passenger’s side window to gain access. A number of the cars were luxury vehicles, most of them Mercedes-Benzes. Multiple iPods, iPads, phones, glasses and even a hard drive were stolen. No witnesses have been discovered so far to the crimes and the crook remains at large.

Look at the Fine Print
An Upper East Side man was duped on Craigslist over what he believed to be a good deal on concert ticket. The victim believed that he had found a rare ticket to a sold-out Drake concert on the website. On Wednesday, May 9, at about 3:30 p.m., the victim met with a black man who was sporting cowboy boots and called himself “Martin Lester.” After the victim handed over $500 for the ticket, the two parted ways. The victim returned home to find several inconsistencies on the ticket. He later called Ticketmaster only to discover that the ticket was faked.

Mother’s Day Break-in
Two Upper East Side women who share an apartment left for Mothers Day weekend only to discover that their home was ransacked while they were gone. The crime took place on East 83rd Street and was suspected to have occurred on Saturday, May 12, at about 6:30 p.m. One of the victims returned home from an excursion to find the front door only partially locked. A cursory investigation turned up empty beer bottles in the trash, both bedrooms combed through and an I.D. card belonging to a Brooklyn man. The victims were robbed of their MacBooks, a loss valued at $2,000, and one of the women lost a watch valued at $150, while the other was robbed of her camera valued at $350. There were no witnesses to the crime and the crook is still on the loose, despite the ID found at the scene.

A Startling Awakening
A late-night traveler took the ride of his life when he hailed a cab and fell asleep in the backseat of the car, only to be awakened by an angry cabbie. After a heated verbal argument over the fare, the victim was attacked by the seething cabbie. The victim was picked up at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 13, at East 6th Street and Sixth Avenue. After he nodded out in the backseat, the cabbie drove the napping rider to East 67th Street off First Avenue. The cabbie awakened the passenger, who then began to argue about the fare. The victim got out of the car and was followed for four blocks by the cabbie, who finally smashed a glass bottle over the victim’s head. The victim received lacerations to the face and top of the head. The cabbie then returned to his car and fled. The car has been identified as one of the thousands of yellow medallion cabs that roam the streets and the driver was described as a black man in his 40s with a bald head.

Cash Grab
A popular chain store on Lexington Avenue in the Upper East Side was a victim of grand larceny by two of its employees. The two women were both managers at the store. Over a period of several months starting in March, the two continually made cash refunds for themselves, embezzling over $82,523 in cash. The company became suspicious when they saw that there were so many cash refunds but no customer receipts to go along with them. The two women stopped showing up to work and a fellow employee reported the crime on Saturday, May 12.

Last Thursday evening, a 24-yearold woman entered a barbecue joint on West 72nd Street and ordered a meal  with drinks, totaling $79.20. When the bill was presented, however, instead of paying up, the customer decided to walk out. A restaurant employee chased the check-skipper and caught up with her at the corner of West 72nd and Columbus. When he confronted her, she whacked him over the head with her umbrella and then bit him in the chest hard enough to cause injury. The good news is that this attack happened in full view of police officers, who were able to apprehend the nasty diner and arrest her for felonious assault.

Criminal Cinderella

A police officer responding to a call of a larceny in progress last Sunday ran straight into the perpetrator as he was fleeing the Game Stop location on Broadway that had called in the crime. The suspect flailed his arms and tried to escape but was ultimately arrested—but not before running around the neighborhood and leaving a trail in his wake. Three witnesses said that they saw the man as he ran straight into their group, knocking one woman to the ground and then removing a black iPad-like device from his jacket and tossing it to the ground. The girl’s boyfriend chased the man to another street, where he hid underneath a parked van and was spotted by a nearby food vendor. The suspect then dashed out, leaving one of his blue sneakers behind, and eventually was caught. The store employee identified the man (without the aid of his missing shoe) as someone who had been fidgeting with the device, which was tethered to a stand inside the store, before making some loud noises and tearing it off. The tablet was a specially configured store demo worth $10,887, according to the employee.

Arranged Assault

A plan to attack and steal an electronic tablet device was thwarted by a pair of cautious friends last week. A man attempting to sell his tablet had heard from a prospective buyer and arranged to meet him in the lobby of his building on West 61st Street. The seller brought a pal along with him, which was good thinking—when he arrived, the supposed purchaser assaulted him, beating him and snatching the tablet. The friend grabbed the suspect and the two were able to hold him until police arrived and made an arrest.

Closet Thieves

A 68-year-old woman came to police to report what she suspects to be gradual theft by several home health aides from her wardrobe. The woman said that over the course of several months, many items have gone missing, including several hooded jackets, designer sweaters worth $1,200, expensive Lord & Taylor nightgowns, a bottle of Dior perfume and some household supplies.

Vehicle Thefts Abound

While grand larceny auto isn’t usually a frequent crime on the Upper West Side, there was a slight uptick last week in reported stolen vehicles. Victims reported, in separate incidents, three cars, two pricey scooters and one motorcycle missing from neighborhood streets recently.

Nail Polish Plot

A 50-year-old man whom employees recognized was acting suspiciously at a local Duane Reade last week. He had a white plastic shopping bag and began sweeping five displays of Sally Hansen nail polish into it. When employees confronted the man, he left without paying for the polish, which was worth a grand total of $1,486, according to the store.

Let’s be real: nobody but Nielson families watch TV on television set anymore. I bet so few people watch TV-TV that only a few of you understood my killer Nielson family joke! But, to be honest, who has time to sit around and watch the tube? It’s not Must See. If so—trust me—some bar in Williamsburg has a theme night for it. Not to mention how totally unhip it is to actually ‘watch TV’ these days. We all know kids these days are watching the Internet just like the rest of us. If you are watching TV, it’s likely that you’re using a DVR to do it. Which is sort of what Aereo is about.

All the way back in 2009 Vishesh Kumar and Sam Schechner reported in the Wall Street Journal that “the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a new type of digital-video recorder from Cablevision Systems Corp., [which set] the stage for wider use of the technology.” That, of course, was the good ‘ole Cablevision DVR+; much lauded for not requiring a small object in a room but derided for being unfathomable slow in the beginning. When Cablevision launched their bright idea a slew of networks sued them too. Cablevision hired a lawyer and won their case and, no spoilers, Aereo just hired the same one.

The original defense rested on the fact that each DVR+ member was basically doing the same thing TiVo lets you do: recording content that anybody with an antenna and a TV has free access to, and every recording was saved to an individual’s own/private Virtual DVR Storage. Very much like when Universal and Disney sued Sony because the Betamax was considered an evil piracy device. Aereo’s is likely to use ‘The Cablevision Defense’ because their whole system works by allotting members their own/private pair of micro-antennae located on the company’s own Brooklyn rooftop. In effect, you’re paying Aereo to hold on to your antenna for you.

Like millions and millions of my contemporaries, to me, the Internet equals an Absolutely Everything Machine. If it’s not on the Internet, I don’t know about it. Even if it is on the Internet, but is not in the cheap to free price range, I actually do not want it. Aereo’s $12/month price is not bad at all. If you add in the price of monthly Netflix and Hulu+ accounts, the price tag for your TV diet is still way less than my grandfather pays for cable. Right now Aereo is in Beta so you have to sign up for an invite, but new users get a 90-day free trial. Their website looks nice and the video quality is just fine when you’re watching it live—that’s right: live streaming video.

All this actually-on-the-air-right-now content reminded me of what a huge letdown it was back in the day when there was “just nothing on!” But with Aereo I flipped ahead in the guide a bit, set it to record 30 Rock, did things, and came back at 9 p.m. and was actually giddy! To think, my very own brand new episode of 30 Rock saved away snug within 40 hours of DVR storage space on the Aereo Cloud, and, What?! Under the Recordings tab, I found a friendly, devil-red, line of text which read: “Not recorded: System error”

I felt feelings then that I hadn’t felt since I once forgot to put a new VHS in for the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale. There’s bound to be issues at first. And an episode of Seinfeld and an airing of The Addams Family movie recorded just fine later on.

Broadcasters need to stop and take stock of their industry. Here is another example, among many, of a business model showing us that the future of television is not allergic to revenue. But still these clunky old brands are so afraid of reality that they’ve become incapable of taking all this money I’ve got sitting around.

Services like Aereo could be a non-candy lifesaver for these guys. All the ingredients are there: TV, Internet, willing consumers and money. Also, think of how much more in touch networks would be with all the data available from a web audience. Instead of spending cash picking on the new kids, legacy media outfits might consider a few smart investments. Don’t be afraid of working together to make life easier for consumers.

How do you get your sitcoms? Think The Plaintiffs are right? Let us know in the comments!

Follow @44carib on @twitter just because!

Georgia Suter

Competition from tablets and ebooks have shaken the stability of many bookstores in New York and across the United States in the past few years. While a shift in the bookstore landscape started years earlier, with large chain booksellers forcing lesser-known independent stores out of business, the new digital shift is pushing those very chains, like Borders, into bankruptcy. Strand Book Store on Broadway, which first opened in 1927 and moved to its current location in the ’50s, stands as the sole survivor of what used to be New York’s legendary “Book Row,” which consisted of 48 bookstores that ran from Union Square down to Astor Place.

Occupying 55,000 square feet of space—it famously bills itself as “18 miles of books”— Strand stands as a “fiercely independent” family business. It’s currently run by the founder’s son, Fred Bass, who started working in his father’s store at the age of 13, and his daughter, Nancy Bass Wyden. In the early 1990s, the bookstore went online and customers can now browse its entire collection at strandbooks.com.

While tablets of all kind, from the Amazon Kindle to Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the Apple iPad, are making digital books accessible to people, Andrew V., who has worked as an operator at Strand for over a year and a half, noted that Strand stands apart from other sources. He said it maintains its strength due to its rare collections.

“I like to read classics and more obscure things that they might not carry on Kindle—they tend to carry more mass-market books,” he said.

Wyden, the founder’s granddaughter, has previously noted that serious collectors visit the store and that its collection is the envy of major libraries.

For the average shopper, Andrew noted that there are certain challenges that come with being an independent seller. “One of the biggest challenges is that a lot of people want to go to the bigger name bookstore because they’re most likely to carry a lot of things. A lot of times, we won’t deal with a certain publisher for some reason—we might not have an established relationship with them, for instance. So we might only get a few used copies [of a book] in, but it’s not something we’ve actually ordered.”

With the current economic climate, however, Strand’s low prices and carts of discounted books lining the sidewalks outside appeal to many.

“A lot of our stuff is used as well as new, but that’s also what is keeping us in business at the same time,” noted Andrew. “We have good prices. People who wind up coming here, when they do discover us and see our prices, it makes them inclined to come back again and again.”

While the store does not sell any kind of tablet, it has reaped profits from selling merchandise alongside the books, adding another element to the bookstore experience and spreading the family’s historic brand outside the building’s borders.

“We do sell a lot of merchandise, which is one of our hits—like the tote bag—and that’s helped us stand out,” Andrew says.

With five floors of books, Andrew points out that the store is also using gatherings of interested and passionate book lovers as a means of boosting revenue.

“Our events used to be free, but we’re starting to charge for them now. We ask that people contribute a minimum of $10, which goes toward a gift card they can use at the store. The events are also a way to encourage them to buy books at the event.”

And Wyden has previously stated, “Tourists love to go stores that they can’t find anywhere else. Customers always tell us they love shopping at Strand because it’s like a treasure hunt—you never know what you’re going to find. And because we’re part of New York City history.”

Comic book giant Stan Lee’s Spider-man, the X-Men and the Hulk are just of his created fan favorites that have been around for generations. While riding high on his successful creations, Lee’s still at work and branched away from his mainstays with a new brand for 1821 Comics. During an exclusive interview, Lee promised that he’ll be devoting time to creating new characters and background stories, but this time just for kids.

1821′s “Stan Lee’s Kids Universe” premiered at New York Comic Con as a platform. Lee explained to the crowd that comics have become too adult in nature and he hoped to bring in humor and general fun to the market.

Never willing to do anything half-hearted, Lee will be working on all types of products for this new generation to indulge in. 1821 Comics is currently working on six projects; five books and an interactive game for the iPhone and iPad, which will be released by Spring. The company is also working on producing a video game featuring the man himself, humorously titled, “Stan Lee Saved the World.”

“As much as I possibly can because this project is very important to me,” Lee replied when asked how much hands on work will he be able to take on. “And every little detail, Terry [Dougas] and I go over it. We decide what the characters will be, what they’ll look like, what they’ll personalties will be. Who’ll draw them, who’ll write them and so forth, we are on top of everything. This is an important project, not something we’re just casually doing.”

Terry Dougas, CEO of 1821 Comics, backed up his partner’s claim that this isn’t just some casual project of theirs; they’ve been working together for years to get it just right. “We’re going to do a lot of books,” Dougas added. “We’re starting with amping everything up now for next year.”

In quite the literal sense, Lee has lended his own voice to the project. At the 1821 Comic Con presentation, fans were treated to an exclusive preview of the colorful motion graphics, not limited to a cartoon version of Lee. “That’s me!” Lee exclaimed to the screen.

While Lee admitted that adults are welcome to read the new comics, they are meant for a kid audience without an agenda. ‚ÄúWe’re not on a crusade of any sort.” Lee assured and also added while he wanted products to be educational, he’s been foremost concerned in the entertainment value. “Kids have a great sense of humor if you can reach them the right way.”

Will Lee be able to reach kids? Dougas believed so and called him a “perfect partner” during the interview. “He knows what the kids want, which is amazing… He’s like a little kid,” Dougas said smiling, gesturing to Lee on his side.

Dougas and Lee first met 8 years ago when the duo were imagining children’s characters for film and television. Ultimately, they agreed that comics were what they wanted to do. “We kinda try and create stories and ideas, things that we really want to read.” Dougas said. “What people want see now, kinda have fun with them, characters like Reggie the Veggie Crocodile, it’s funny to have Reggie run around the world on adventures.”

“Since we – Terry and I – have good memories as kids, we still remember what we liked as kids, and that’s what we’re trying to put out on the printed page – for today’s kids.” Lee explained in an interview.