Canal St. burglary bust
Two suspects were arrested in the living room of a couple sleeping in their apartment at 370 Canal St. at W. Broadway around 5 a.m. Sat. Dec. 3.
Police said that Jeffrey Clement, 20 and Tyrell Piazza, 23, and another suspect not apprehended, were stealing a wallet with $2,500 and a laptop computer when one of the victims awoke.
The suspects fled but Clement and Piazza were soon arrested. A box-cutter was recovered from Piazza’s pants pocket. The two were charged with larceny and Piazza was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon. When he was arrested, Piazza told police his name was Justin Statan. Piazza repeated the name after he was warned that giving false information to police was a crime. A fingerprint check revealed his real name and he was charged with false personation.
Cell phone grabs
Police are looking for a man who tried to snatch a cell phone from a woman, 29, while she was talking on it in front of the Rutgers Houses near Madison St. on Tuesday morning Nov. 29. The suspect grabbed the phone and fled but the victim chased him and grabbed it back. Surveillance cameras taped the victim fleeing into 38 Rutgers St.
A less fortunate woman was talking on her cell phone in front of 107 Thompson St. between Spring and Prince Sts. around 1:13 a.m. Mon., Dec. 5 when a man ran past going south, grabbed the phone and fled with it.
DWI bust
Seth Andrews, 35, a spokesperson for the Office of Emergency Management, was arrested for crashing his city-owned car into the rear of a cab, which in turn rammed a parked truck near King St. and Sixth Ave. around 11:30 p.m. Wed., Dec. 7, police said. Andrews, a resident of White St. in Lower Manhattan, at first refused police orders to get out of the car and when he did, he registered .196 in a field alcohol breath test, more than twice the legal. He also refused to take a breath test at the Seventh Precinct. Charged with driving while intoxicated and refusal to take a breath test, he was taken to Bellevue for observation after he said he wanted to harm himself. He was released on $5,000 bail and surrendered his driver’s license. He has been suspended from O.E.M. without pay.
Teller arrested
Sephoen Tsang, 22, was indicted on Fri., Dec. 9 for stealing more than $240.000 from the Chase branch at 221 Canal St. on Tues., Nov. 29, according to the Manhattan District Attorney. Tsang made several false computer entries to cover the theft of $243,000. He left a note apologizing to the bank manager at the end of the day, the D.A. said. Tsang was arrested Fri., Dec. 2 at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City while playing baccarat.
Greenhouse environment
Greenhouse, the club at 150 Varick St., was the scene of a brawl early on Sun., Dec. 11 and the theft of a patron’s bag during the early hours of Wed., Dec. 7.
A patron, 24, told police that he was punched and hit with a bottle when he got in the middle of six men who were brawling in the club around 3 a.m. Sunday.
A Soho man, 51, told police he was talking to some women at the bar around 2 a.m. Wed. and discovered an hour later that his bag, which he had place on the floor at his feet, had been stolen.
Arrested on subway
Transit police arrested Jimmy Davis, 28, around 5:30 a.m. Sun., De. 11 and charged him with trying to rob a sleeping passenger, 39 on a southbound train at Fulton and Church Sts.
Not a patriot
The barmaid at Patriot, the bar at 110 Chambers St., told police that an impatient customer threw a glass, hit her in the hip and cut her during the early hours of Sat. Dec. 10. The bouncer stopped the suspect but released him after he said, “I didn’t mean to hit her.” The suspect was identified by a credit card payment as Munezat Ndize, 23, of Liverpool, N.Y., near Syracuse.
Thefts while shopping
A visitor from the San Francisco area was buying a knock-off bag from a vendor at 374 Canal St. near W. Broadway around 9 p.m. Sat. Dec. 10 and put her own bag on the sidewalk at her feet. The vendor introduced her to a bystander who grabbed the victim’s bag and both the vendor and the bystander fled, police said. The victim told police her bag had $4,800 in cash.
A woman buying shoes at a store at 443 Broadway between Howard and Grand Sts. around 6 p.m. Fri., Dec. 9, put her bag on the seat next to her and discovered 20 minutes later that the bag was gone. Police soon arrested a suspect, Samantha Bryan, 24, who was carrying the stolen bag, but insisted that it was hers. Bryan was charged with larceny.
A visitor from Italy was trying on clothes at a boutique at 575 Broadway near Prince St. around 7:48 p.m. Sat., Dec. 3 when three men took his wallet from his jacket and fled, police said. The victim lost 250Euros,his Italian driver’s license, ID and credit cards.
Car break-in
Two visitors from Belgium parked their rental car on the northeast corner of Hudson and Vandam St. around 12:30a.m. Sat., Dec. 10 and returned three hours later to discover a window broken and two laptop computers, two cameras, two head sets, two iPods and a Blackberry tablet, with a total value of $7480, were stolen.
— Albert Amateau
