Man ambushed
A man was robbed in the middle of the afternoon in Soho by seven teenagers, police reported this week. The attack took place on the corner of West Broadway and Prince St. from 4:30 to 4:45 p.m. on Fri., July 26. The victim, 36, told police that he was approached by a young man, between the age of 15 and 17, who grabbed his white iPhone 4S from his hand.
The man tried to get it back and was punched in the face by the robber, who was soon joined by six other teens, who also attacked him before fleeing down Prince St., the man said. Police reported that the victim sustained lacerations and bruises to the face and head. A canvass of the area did not yield results and when the man tried to track his lost phone, it was offline.
The leader was described as about 5’9”, 150 pounds with his hair in braids.
Cash grab
Police arrested a different suspect for a robbery on Lispenard St. last week. According to the report, Wilfredo Morales, 52, was arrested and charged with robbery when he grabbed $110 from a man’s hand who at about 6:25 a.m. on Tues., July 23. He got into a struggle for the cash with his victim, 57, before fleeing down the street. However, he was caught in short order, and police recovered the money from Morales’ front pocket before cuffing him.
Ex exits train with wallet
A man with an open warrant for a domestic violence stole his ex-girlfriend’s wallet from her while she was on the train Downtown, police reported.
Despite a protection order against him, Nicola Landi, 24, according to police, stole his 18-year-old ex’s purse from her, police reported. The woman told police that she was traveling home from Coney Island at 1 a.m. on Wed., July 24 when Landi came up to her on a northbound 2 Train. He tried to engage her in conversation, and then grabbed her purse from the seat next to her and ran off the train into the Park Place station. The woman pursued him up to the exit at Broadway and Park Place, where he removed her wallet and dropped the purse to the ground.
She said the wallet contained her driver’s permit, insurance card and debit card.
Bag overboard
Look out below, for the scurvy villain who stole a bag from the crew’s dining table inside the historic steamship Lilac, docked at Pier 25.
The bag was taken sometime between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., on Sat., July 20, and belonged to the director of the Lilac Preservation Project.
She left her bag on the dining room table and returned an hour later to find it missing, with $115 accrued in unauthorized charges on a debit and credit card, and more charges that did not go through, according to police.
Transit arrests
Two men were apprehended for thefts while at the Chambers St. subway station.
On Tues., July 23, police arrested a 15-year-old for grabbing a $700 iPhone 5 from the hands of a 40-year-old woman who was sitting on a northbound C Train. The woman said that her phone was snatched out of her hands at around 8:25 a.m., and the thief jumped off the train into the Chambers St. station just before the doors closed. He was arrested at 8:45 a.m. on the corner of Church and Fulton Sts.
Anthony Boyd, 42, was arrested on Sun., July 28 when he was observed removing the wallet from the pocket of a sleeping passenger on a northbound E train at the Chambers St./World Trade Center station at 6:15 a.m. The victim, 40, got his wallet (with $231 in cash) back after the arrest.
Cleaned out while cleaning up
One man lost his wallet when he left his locker unlocked during a quick shower. The victim, 44, said he was working out at the Equinox gym at 14 Wall St. on Sun., July 21. When he finished his work out at about 2 p.m., he unlocked his locker and left it unsecured while he went to rinse off. One quick clean up later, his wallet was missing along with his credit cards, several of which had been charged at the Century 21 department store.
A different Equinox gym, at 54 Murray St., was the site of locker room larceny on July 20. The 27-year-old victim told police he had closed and locked his unit at 9:50 a.m., but when he returned to it 20 minutes later, the lock was gone and so were his belongings, including a $520 iPad Mini, a $20 backpack, a $40 wallet, $50 iPod shuffle, his credit cards, debit cards, New York ID, two pairs of shoes, a tank top and his keys.
Shorts shoplifters
A group of shoplifters with a peculiar penchant for pricey red shorts hit a popular jeans brand location in Soho.
An employee, 31, told police that three people, two women and a man who were all about 20 years old, entered the True Religion store at 132 Prince St. and walked out with about $1,300 in merchandise. The employee said the store’s surveillance camera showed the three shoplifters conceal seven pairs of red cargo shorts and leave the store at 5:11 p.m. on Sun., July 21.
The video also showed that none of them touched any surfaces in the store, though police did find a cup that one of them had left behind to dust for fingerprints.
— Kaitlyn Meade
