Boat break-in
Police arrested a man wielding a large hammer on Pier 25 in the early morning hours of March 6 after breaking into a ship docked at the pier.
Police reported that a man tried to break into a ship, The Nantucket, a privately-owned charter ship that was tied up at the Tribeca pier near Harrison St.
The man, Shlomo Avraham, 25, was charged with burglary, criminal possession of a controlled substance, possession of burglars’ tools, criminal mischief for property damage and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a police spokesperson.
Avraham reportedly climbed onboard and broke the hatch with a hammer at about 5:30 a.m. He was apprehended by police officers after a deckhand called the police.
Safety on the pier has been a concern since Hudson River Park lost power on many of its piers during Hurricane Sandy.
“The pier being dark at night might have encouraged him, a symptom of power being out in Hudson River Park,” said Mary Habstritt, director of the LILAC Preservation Project, which manages exhibits on the historic Lilac steamship at Pier 25.
Habstritt said that they had pulled the gangway up every night as a safety precaution. “He might have looked at us and said, ‘Oh, it’s too hard to get on that boat.’”
She also said that it was a reminder for anyone who used the park, to remain cautious because while the park technically closes at dusk, there is no way to prevent people from entering.
The Nantucket’s owners could not be reached for comment.
Store arrests
Police arrested two people, Brianna Clavery, 19, and Deandre Gibbs, also 19, whom they say attempted to pickpocket a store employee of the Hastens Store SoHo, a Swedish bed manufacturer, at 75 Grand St. last week.
The employee, 29, told police that when the two entered the store at about 3:15 p.m. on Wed., March 13, one of them distracted her co-worker while the other went to the employee’s jacket, which was hanging over the back of a chair, and took $200 in cash, credit cards and IDs from the pockets.
In a separate incident at another store, an employee was robbed when she let a customer use the store’s restroom, police said. The phony shopper didn’t get away clean, according to police.
The employee, 29, said that a woman had entered the variety store at 383 Canal St. where she worked at 1 p.m. on Sat., March 16 and asked to use the bathroom. The employee told police that the customer then stole her wallet from her bag, containing credit cards and $200 in cash, which was in an unattended storeroom near the restroom, before leaving the store.
The victim realized soon after and her co-worker confronted the thief outside the store, prompting her to give back the cards and $20 in cash, police said. Meanwhile, the victim flagged down an officer who arrested Tanya Purvis, 39.
Purvis reportedly told police, “Yes, I took her wallet.” Police recovered the wallet and remaining cash and cards.
Coffee break bandit
Small cell phone with extra credit was on order at a Downtown Starbucks last week when a woman’s belongings were stolen from the Civic Center location.
On Mon., March 11, at 5:37 p.m., the 22-year-old was at a Starbucks on 120 Church St. She told police that she set her wallet and phone on a counter in the coffee shop while she went up to order a drink, but when she returned, both items were missing, including several debit cards, IDs and cash.
When she checked with her bank, she found that two unauthorized charges had been made on the cards, which she subsequently cancelled. A police canvas was negative but video is available. On top of her $70 wallet and cards, she also lost her Samsung cell phone, worth $150.
— Kaitlyn Meade
