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.

“It’s that time of year. This is what we get on the Upper East Side,” said Officer Tarik Hunter, the 19th Police Precinct’s crime prevention specialist. He cited eight reported incidents of pickpocketing in his district since August, most of which have occurred in the past month. This increase mirrors last year’s numbers, and, as Hunter emphasized, only accounts for thefts that have been reported to NYPD: Many people do not realize that their belongings are missing until well after the incident, he said, so they are not sure if they were robbed or simply lost something.

A community affairs officer in Midtown North, Manhattan’s 18th Precinct, confirmed a similar spike in larcenies in his district. “It’s usually the same [each year],” he said, and added that the city’s heavily commercial areas endure a regular holiday increase in shoplifting as well as pickpocketing.
Thefts are, indeed, up across the city this month in keeping with annual trends, the NYPD reported. As well as in crowded public transportation vehicles, they said that many sneaky crooks strike in restaurants, bars and outdoor benches, where absent-minded visitors sometimes leave bags unattended and ripe for picking.

“I’m surprised. I haven’t heard of any [increase],” said John Barrett, a commuter waiting at a bus stop along Madison Avenue, whose buses have been heaviest hit by Upper East side pickpockets, according to Officer Hunter. “Pickpockets—that sounds like something from Charles Dickens.”
Despite his startled reaction, Barrett said that he is diligent in guarding his belongings on public transportation, and checks his pockets whenever someone brushes against him—a habit that he says has won him more than a few mean looks from innocent passersby. “It’s so quick that somebody can take your stuff and leave with it,” he said. “I just try to take precautions.”

Another bus rider was less surprised to hear about the holiday-time thieves. “I’m a New Yorker wherever I go,” said Peggy McDermott-Roberts, a city native who recently returned from a trip to California. “I look at my purse 29 times before and after I get on any bus.” She noticed that on her return to the city, people seemed more anxious on public transport around this time of the year, a bit more frenzied and less attentive.

A third commuter, Sandra Hasman, attributed the increase in thefts to the city’s seasonal influx of tourists. “There are so many more out-of-towners here for the holiday,” she observed. The NYPD confirmed that tourists were prime targets for pickpockets, because they tend to be less aware of the danger and more preoccupied with navigating the city.

However, locals are always at risk, too, officers emphasized. According to an NYPD safety report, pickpockets often hit crowds on bus or subway rides when passengers are so crammed together that it is hard to distinguish the feeling of a sneaky hand. New York pickpockets are also known to orchestrate some elaborate distractions, like a staged shouting match between two apparent strangers, to hold commuters’ attention long enough to steal from them.

The NYPD is taking measures to combat the annual spike, but they say that the best prevention is awareness. Use handbags with zippers and locks, they recommend, and never carry wallets in back pockets. If your find your pocket picked on a bus or train, they suggest that you immediately yell out to warn passengers and the driver / conductor. In their words, “Don’t be afraid to be loud.”

A woman was robbed at knifepoint while riding the subway last Friday. At about 2:30 a.m., the 44-year-old Queens resident boarded a southbound 2 train and was approached by a knife-wielding man. “Give me your money,” he demanded, and pressed the knife up against her face as he went through her jacket and pockets. He removed her phone and close to $1,000 cash. At 66th Street Station, he hopped off of the train and ran out of the station. He is now wanted for robbery.

FAILED HOOKUP
A 27-year-old lost his watch last week when the woman he brought home after a fun night out stole it from him. At 3 in the morning on Friday, the young charmer returned to his apartment on West 86th Street with a woman he had met at a bar. He left her alone for a minute for a quick bathroom break, and when he returned, she was gone—and so was his $8,000 Rolex. The thief is now at large. According to the victim, she has a bear or tiger tattoo.

DOMESTIC ABUSE
A 60-year-old woman recently reported to NYPD that she had been abused by her husband. When an officer arrived to investigate at the couple’s Central Park West apartment at 5 p.m. on Saturday, however, the couple did not answer the door. The officer called for backup, and when they attempted to enter the apartment, the battered wife tried to prevent them. Police arrested the husband and the wife, who scratched an officer’s neck while resisting them. The couple was taken to a nearby hospital, and both refuse to cooperate with police.

SNEAK ATTACK
A young Upper West Side resident was robbed over the weekend on West 80th Street. The 25-year-old had just exited a taxi at 12:40 a.m. Saturday when a stranger sneaked up behind her and knocked her to the ground. While she was down, the attacker snatched her purse and then sprinted away to Columbus Avenue. The victim was able to recover her purse, but her wallet and Blackberry had been removed. The robber remains at large.

STOLEN WEDDING RINGS
A middle-aged couple reported to police that two of their rings had been stolen over the summer. On Wednesday, Dec. 5, the couple told police that the landlord of their West 84th Street apartment had alerted them that work needed to be done on their home. After the work was completed in August, the couple’s lives returned to normal, until they recently realized that the 41-year-old wife’s wedding and engagement rings were missing from the clothing drawer they kept them in. The wedding ring is worth $600, and the engagement ring is worth $32,000.

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).

A 50-year-old West End Avenue resident reported to police last Thursday that he received repeated e-mails from an unknown man threatening to kill him. In the messages, the perp explained that someone had offered him $2,000 (half given in advance) to execute the Upper West Sider, and that the resident could only subvert his pending demise by paying the perp $1,000. Concerned for his safety, the resident reported the threats to the FBI, who told him to go to local authorities. Police filed the case as attempted grand larceny.

Ride Home  Gone Wrong
Last Sunday, a 26-year-old woman got into a taxi on East 62nd Street and York Avenue and asked the driver to take her home. The problem arose when the driver said he didn’t know how to get to her address on Webster Avenue in the Bronx. The two argued, and the woman demanded to be let out of the cab. As she was exiting, the driver allegedly got out and kicked her in the groin area and left leg, causing bruises and substantial pain. Police arrested the 35-year-old driver when they arrived on the scene.

Pushover Robbery
Police apprehended and arrested a 32-year-old man last Sunday evening for felony robbery. The man had been following his victim, a 26-year-old woman, as she walked on East 67th Street (she later told police she could tell she was being followed). Before she could get away, the perp threw her to the sidewalk and forcefully grabbed her purse, causing lacerations and bruises on her knees and shoulder. He got away with her purse, which she said contained $517 worth of valuables, but police were able to catch him, and the victim positively identified him before he was arrested.

Food Fight
Two employees at a Third Avenue Asian restaurant were arguing last Saturday over stolen food. One man accused the other of pilfering food from their place of work and, as the fight escalated, the accuser punched the other man in the face with a closed fist. The 55-year-old victim was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital for treatment, and the 45-year-old assailant was arrested.

Prankster on the Loose
A 23-year-old woman came home last Sunday to her East 83rd Street apartment to find that she couldn’t get into her door. An unknown perpetrator had filled the lock with silicon glue, damaging it and preventing her from using her key.

Doggie Debacle
Sometimes, even puppy love can go too far. One Upper East Side woman’s desire to protect her pooch recently got her into trouble with another passerby. On the evening of May 28, the 55-year-old woman argued with a man she claimed had almost stepped on her dog as she was walking on East 83rd Street near Park Avenue. The dispute escalated into violence when the man punched the woman on her right cheek, bruising her face. The man fled the scene and police are on the lookout for the suspect.

Wallet Gone Missing
An 18-year-old man was walking on the corner of Third Avenue and East 59th Street on the evening of May 28 when he felt someone bump into him. When he checked his back pocket, he noticed that his $200 Ralph Lauren wallet, containing his New York State learner’s permit, Citibank debit card and school MetroCard, was missing. No suspects were found.

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.

Courtesy of Ben Hussman

Cash Over Easy
While most people who enter a bodega early in the morning are looking for an egg sandwich, two crooks were starving for the green, as opposed to eggs and ham. April 2 at 5 a.m., the thugs entered a store on the Upper East Side and while one stood guard, the other went around the counter, brandished a revolver at the clerk and demanded the cash in the register. After taking $500, the two men fled the scene. There have been no arrests so far in the case.

Brand Loyalty Can Only Take You So Far
Having passion for your job is always a plus, but when your enthusiasm entails trying to stop a criminal who robbed your store, employees may want to leave that to the police. Saturday, March 31 at 12:50 a.m., two males and a female entered a large convenience store on Lexington Avenue and began filling their pockets with gum and deodorant. One employee took notice of the theft and proceeded to follow the perps outside, where he was threatened with a screwdriver. The two men fled the scene and the police detained the woman who was with them. The boys in blue wish to remind citizens that confronting crooks is their job and the best way to help is to get a description and the direction in which the criminal fled.

Sidewalk Scuffle
A timeless quote from Bambi says: “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” The writers were not kidding. Saturday, March 31 at 2:55 p.m., two men got into an altercation on 1st Avenue. After a few minutes of quarrelling, one of the men decided to take the argument to the next level and brandished a knife at his nemesis. When the police arrived, there was no knife to be found. Both men were arrested.

Letting in Fresh Air and Deft Crooks
One lucky cat burglar took advantage of unlocked windows and a fire escape to make off with quite the payday. Thursday, March 29, a thief made his way into four apartments and did not break a single lock or window in the process. The burglar ascended the fire escape of an apartment building on East 73rd Street in the middle of the day and made off with a multitude of electronics, jewelry, sunglasses, iPads and iPods and a slew of diamond necklaces. With the warm weather coming in fast, those with fire escapes outside their window may want to reconsider leaving their windows open to the cool outside air and cunning criminals.

Keep Your Bags Close and Valuables Closer
When going out to eat or heading to a pub, remember that you are not lounging at home, safe from theft. For the past three months, deft hands have been invading the sanctity of purses and other handbags left on chairs of restaurants and pubs on the Upper East Side. The NYPD at the 21st Precinct wants to remind residents that they should keep close tabs on their belongings, keep their valuables nearby or leave the expensive stuff at home.

Oh, the iRony
An Irish tourist was visiting the Upper West Side Apple store, perusing the laptops, when she became a victim of theft. An unknown man snatched the woman’s white iPhone 4, worth $500, from her unzipped purse. She told police that she couldn’t cancel her cell service until she returned home to Ireland.

Apartment Assault
A man entered his apartment on West 62nd Street to drop off groceries last Tuesday night to be greeted at the elevator doors by a man known only as “Calvin,” his ex-wife’s new boyfriend. The two got into a verbal altercation and Calvin whipped out a knife and stabbed the man in the left side of the chest. Calvin got away but is wanted for felonious assault, and the victim was taken to Cornell Medical Center for treatment.

Loose Laptop
Last week, a man reported that $300 cash and a $1,200 MacBook were stolen from his West 72nd Street apartment. He told police that the apartment was locked and there were no signs of forced entry, but that someone could have gained entry through his unlocked window.

Missing Rings
An 81-year-old woman reported to police that several rings and a green stone had gone missing from her dresser drawer. She said that she had last seen the items, which she valued at $3,850, about eight weeks ago, and that the only person who might have had access to them was her home health aide, who has been working for her for seven months.
Successful Stick-Up
Last Friday morning, a man walked into a Sovereign Bank branch on Broadway, sauntered up to a teller and slipped a note requesting $10,000 in cash. The perp indicated that the teller should be quick about it and not include any dye packs in the loot. He was able to grab $2,000 in cash and flee on foot down Broadway. Police conducted a search and canvas but didn’t find the suspect, who is described as a 6-foot-1 black male in a blue baseball cap.

Suspicious Entry
A legal assistant working at a commercial building on West 77th Street reported a suspicious break-in at her office. Last Wednesday, she left the building at 12:30 p.m., locking the door behind her, and returned around 7 p.m. to find UPS packages sitting behind the locked front door, to which no one else was supposed to have access. She also noticed strange markings around the lock on the door; upon searching inside, she discovered a set of keys on a fifth-floor table. The woman told police that she suspects that the phantom burglar stole documents from a biomedical research office on the second floor of the building in connection with legal action between that company and a pharmaceutical company.

Polite Thief
A woman dining at a Chinese restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue last Saturday was about to leave, forgetting her purse, when a nice young man stopped her outside the door and returned it to her. The woman quickly checked her belongings and ascertained that $75 cash and her debit card were missing. The man denied taking anything from the bag, then promptly hopped on a bicycle and sped off. Another man who worked at the restaurant told the woman that he had seen the first man lift items out of the bag inside.

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.