BAD PLACE TO NAP
A man at work on his laptop in a coffee shop on Broadway let his guard down for a moment and was robbed. At around 10 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23, the 64-year-old New Jersey resident decided to take a 10-minute power nap in the shop with his laptop on the table in front of him. When he woke up, the laptop—an Apple computer worth $1,350—was gone. No one in the shop claimed to have witnessed the theft, and the thief remains at large.

UNHAPPY HOLIDAY
A 43-year-old West 62nd Street resident is wanted for assault after he threw a glass cup at his wife on Christmas. The couple got into an argument in their apartment around 11 p.m. The husband’s anger turned violent when he took a glass and hurled it at the back of the wife’s head, cutting her and causing her to go to the hospital. The husband fled the apartment and has not been tracked down by police. The wife, 46, was not seriously injured, and reportedly has been uncooperative with law enforcement.

THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CAMERAS AND AN iPAD
A private school on Riverside Boulevard was robbed over its holiday break. According to an employee of the school, the last worker in the building before the break left at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23. When the employee returned to the schoolmi on the following Wednesday, she noticed that cameras were missing from two rooms, and that an iPad was missing from the school’s main office. Police found no signs of forced entry—broken locks, shattered windows, etc.—and note that the robber(s) could have had a key to get into the school’s rear entrance. Video surveillance may have recorded the theft.

FAILED CHRISTMAS ROBBERY
A young couple attempted to rob a 42-year-old woman on the street on Tuesday, Dec. 25. The pair, believed to be in their twenties, approached the woman on West 74th Street at 6:30 p.m., and the female perp jumped forward and began striking the woman on the top of her head and face. The woman asked the pair what they wanted, and the male perp demanded her phone. Instead of complying, however, the woman managed to escape the robbers and ran toward Amsterdam Avenue yelling for help. The pair fled defeated, but have yet to be identified or apprehended.

SUCCESSFUL CHRISTMAS ROBBERY
A man was robbed on Columbus Avenue on Tuesday, Dec. 25. The 39-year-old Upper West Side resident noticed two men following him as he was walking up the street at 1:30 a.m. They came up from behind, put him in a choke hold and threw him to the ground. Though he resisted, they wrestled his $150 HP Touchpad from him, then took off running on West 76th Street. The two thieves are wanted for robbery.

WHEN ROOMMATES ATTACK
A stabbing recently occurred on West 73rd Street. At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, the 60-year-old perp followed a 59-year-old acquaintance of his after he was dropped off on the street by a shelter-run bus service. The perp approached the man and stabbed him twice in the arm and once in the side, then lodged the knife in the man’s shoulder. The perp then fled the scene, and the victim was taken to the hospital. Details were not given about the nature of the dispute between the two men, though the police report confirms that they lived together on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Bridge and tunnel tolls all will increase, many by 53 cents to $5.33 for E-ZPass holders and by $1 to $7.50 for cash users. Metro-North and Long Island Railroad fares, which vary by time and distance, will go up on average 8.19 to 9.31 percent per ticket.

The bonus on pay-per-ride MetroCards also will decrease to 5 percent from 7 percent. A bonus will be applied to purchases of $5 or more, however, instead of the current $10 minimum.
To determine the fare changes, MTA accepted feedback from customers on four different proposals for increases earlier in the year. The price hike is the authority’s fourth in five years, and it is expected to generate $450 million annually.

CATHOLIC-SCHOOL PARENTS HOPE TO PREVENT CLOSURE
The parents of students at the Holy Name of Jesus school have begun a petition to prevent the school’s closure next year. The elementary school, located at 202 W. 97th St., was one of 27 parochial schools that the Archdiocese of New York recently announced could be closed after the academic year is completed in June, due to diminishing enrollments and financial deficits.

The Archdiocese has given its schools until early January to propose a plan to recoup losses, so Holy Name’s parents are soliciting petitions from alumni and neighborhood residents to save the school, as well as trying to raise funds to cover the $400,000 needed to keep the school open for another year.

“It’s sad to see the archdiocese close its doors on a school that has been around for over 100 years,” said Venus Trujillo, a mother of two children in the school. “Generations and generations of children have come here. Parents travel to bring their children here from the Bronx, Westchester, Queens and even New Jersey because they themselves came here and they want a good education for their children as well.”

She added, “Many parents are around during the morning and after school just trying to figure out what else we can do.”

Students at the school recently staged a holiday play called “Santa’s Elf Esteem,” and held their annual Christmas pageant last week.

RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT DETAILS ANNOUNCED
A development along Riverside Boulevard that will include apartments, a school, a movie theater and office and retail space broke ground earlier this month, and last week developer the Dermot Company released early details about the development’s first building on West 61st Street.

The 43-story building, whose address will be 21 W. End Ave., will house the development’s school along with 616 rental apartments and 23,725 square feet of retail space. The four-story school will educate students from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade, and will include a gym, science laboratory and library.

According to the announcement, residents in the building’s luxury apartments will have access to “a 60-foot, custom-shaped swimming pool and separate hot tub, a 21,000-square-foot fitness center, a yoga and dance room, a private wine bar and lounge, a children’s play area, a hobby room [and] a dog grooming area.” The apartments will have floor-to-ceiling windows.

In compliance with the New York State Housing Finance Agency’s 80/20 program, 127 (20 percent) of the building’s apartments will be low-income units.

The developer expects the building to be completed in June 2015. The school, which is public, will open in 2016.