West Side Crime Watch
Tripped UpTwo Upper West Side residents had the misfortune to return from holiday vacation only to find that their apartments had been burglarized. In the first incident, a 64-year-old woman left her apartment at 215 W. 88th Street for a trip to California at noon on Wednesday, December 23. When she returned at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 3, she noticed that property was missing from her bedroom. There was no damage to the lock of the apartment’s front door, but she told police that she had left some windows slightly open; the window frames were undamaged. A woman neighbor had access to the apartment and had walked the victim’s dog while she was away. Multiple building employees also had access to the premises. The items stolen included various pairs of earrings valued at $20,000, a number of cufflinks valued at $15,000, pendants worth $8,000, and a collection of quarters amounting to $250. The total stolen came to $43,250.
In the second incident, a 36-year-old woman left her apartment at 210 W. 89th Street at 3 p.m. on Friday, December 18. When she returned at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 27, she discovered that her bedroom window had been broken and opened, and the front door of her apartment was unlocked. She found numerous items missing, and the apartment had been left disheveled, with belongings moved about and thrown on the floor. The items stolen included a diamond-and-jade tennis bracelet valued at $1,400, two Samsung laptops totaling $850, a gold tennis bracelet worth $800, a rose-gold cuff bracelet priced at $500, a Swarovski Crystal necklace valued at $400, a Michael Kors watch with a gold face priced at $400, a silver Rotary watch tagged at $350, along with other jewelry presenting a total value of $5,960.
Gray DayThanks to thieves, one man got less than a year of use out of his new car. At 11 p.m. on Monday, December 28, a 43-year-old man parked his gray 2015 Nissan Altima with New York plates GDU5304 in front of 95 W. 95th Street. When he returned the next morning at 11 a.m., he found that the car was missing. The Altima was not at the tow pound, nor could police locate the car elsewhere in the neighborhood. The vehicle was valued at $32,000.
TargetedA local senior became yet another target of ID thieves. On Friday, December 4, an 84-year-old man living at 780 West End Avenue received a phone call from the Wells Fargo bank, asking if he had made five purchases at a Target store in Brooklyn. Apparently, an unknown perpetrator had used a cloned credit card to make purchases without the man’s permission or authority. The victim subsequently canceled his card. The total amount purchased came to $9,824.
Thai and DryPolice warn readers never to leave large amounts of cash in an unattended bag in a public place. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, December 31, a 38-year-old waitress in the Thai Market restaurant at 960 Amsterdam Avenue put her purse and jacket on a shelf behind the hostess counter before starting work. When she came to retrieve the property at the end of her shift at 11 p.m., her belongings were missing. She had not seen anyone approach the counter who could have taken the items. A coworker claimed to have seen her property behind the counter just an hour before it was found missing. The items stolen included $2,500 in cash and an AXT NYC jacket valued at $750, a Longchamp handbag, credit cards, a Thai passport, and a debit card.