Sleeping man hit & robbed
A man sleeping off his wild night was assaulted and robbed by four people in the Spring St. (C,E) subway station, police reported.
Police said the 39-year-old man was intoxicated and sleeping on the floor of the Downtown platform on Thurs., Sept. 19. At about 1:30 a.m., he was approached by a man who punched him in the face, while he was still on the ground, and grabbed his backpack. According to police, another man and a woman held the victim’s arms while the fourth person, a woman, sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. They then went through his pants pockets and took $200 in cash and his HTC cell phone.
Police reported that they fled on a southbound A train. A canvass of the area was negative. In addition to his phone and money, they had taken an iPad 2, $200 in hard drives, his credit cards, debit cards, driver’s license, a pair of sunglasses and a $300 pair of ‘Ultimate Ears’ headphones.
The man was treated on the scene by E.M.S. Police are still seeking the foursome, but have no description.
Soho woman mugged
A 24-year-old woman was pushed down and robbed by two men early Sunday morning as she entered her Soho apartment building, police said.
The woman was walking home along Sullivan St. at 4 a.m. on Sat., Sept. 21. She was about to enter her apartment building when she was grabbed from behind by two men. She described them as both in their early 20s, about 6 feet tall, 180 pounds; one wearing a gray hoodie and one wearing a black hoodie.
She told police that one of the men covered her mouth and pushed her to the ground, while the other took her bag from her. Both of them then ran north on Sullivan to a silver sedan that was parked on the side of the road and fled the scene.
The victim said one of her stolen debit cards was used to purchase gas from an Exxon Mobile station about two hours later. She also lost her Louis Vuitton bag, wallet, driver’s license and iPhone 5. Police did not report any injuries.
Jewelry heist
Shoplifters walked out with $14,000 in merchandise from a high-end jewelry store Downtown, according to the N.Y.P.D.
An employee of the Soho location of designer Wendy Nichol told police that two men entered the 147 Sullivan St. store on Sun., Sept. 22 and pretended to be interested in buying. While they were making their rounds between 6:00 and 6:45 p.m., they managed to pocket three gold rings and then snagged a shoulder bag from the display before strolling out and turning north on Sullivan St. A report was filed with the police about an hour later.
Police said video was available of the two men, one in a Vogue baseball cap and one in a black and white jacket with words printed on both sides. The items stolen were a 1K diamond ring worth $6,000, a $4,500 14K gold pyramid ring, a $2,500 14K thin gold pyramid ring and a black leather Wendy Nichol purse valued at $1,000.
Crawling pickpocket nabbed
Forget the monster under the bed, be more wary of the one under the subway seat. A bizarre incident on a southbound E train will keep one straphanger from sleeping on the subway. A man reported to police that he was on a Word Trade Center bound train at 4:50 a.m. on Sun., Sept. 22. He was sitting next to the train car doors and fell asleep. He awakened to a tugging sensation on the right front pocket of his hoodie. When he looked down, he saw a woman lying beneath his seat, with one hand reaching into his pocket. She was pulling on the headphone cord attached to his cellphone to try to get the phone to fall out.
Caught, the woman managed to crawl out from under the seat and flee into the Spring St. station. The man contacted police and a canvass of passing trains allowed him to spot her across the Spring St. platform.
Police arrested the woman, 28, for attempted theft, perhaps ending her seat lurking days, for a while at least.
Credit card fraud arrest
A man was arrested for fraud after attempting to use several peoples’ stolen credit cards at a Chase Bank in Soho.
The suspect, 37, was apprehended on Fri., Sept. 20 when he was spotted trying to use a credit card that did not belong to him at an ATM at 214 Broadway, police said. When he was searched, the arresting officer found credit and debit cards from seven different people. The victims were from all across the city from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens.
As if the evidence did not speak for itself, the accused told the arresting officers several times that he was a federal agent or police officer. He was charged with grand larceny.
Food stand filcher
A FiDi woman will think twice the next time she stops for lunch at a food cart, after it turned out to be a pricier meal than anticipated.
The woman, 48, reported to police that her wallet went missing after she stopped by a food stand on the corner of Broadway and Park Place on Wed., Sept. 18 to grab a quick bite to eat. She said she pulled out her wallet to pay for the food and set it on top of the cart at about 1:25 p.m. Then, she journeyed down into the subway station on the corner, snack in hand, but not her wallet.
When she realized her error, she said she returned to the food cart to find that the wallet had been stolen, along with her ID, credit and debit cards and $40 in cash. Police said that there were no witnesses to the event.
Locker break-in
Even a locked locker in a locker room is not a safe lockup for valuables, as one man found out on Sept. 17.
The victim, a 34-year old man, reported to police that he had been working out at a New York Sports Club at 217 Broadway between 2:45 and 3:45 p.m. During that time, he said he put his wallet in a locker in the men’s changing rooms and secured it with a combination lock. When he finished his workout, he came back to the locker room to change. He said his locker did not look as though it had been broken into — except for the credit cards missing from his wallet. The thief tried to use three of the four stolen cards but was unsuccessful, police said.
Cyclist snatches cell
A woman had her iPhone snatched from out of her hand by a man on a bike, police said.
According to police, the 31-year-old woman was walking down Hudson St. and texting on her iPhone 4S at 9:40 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 17. When she was at 121 Hudson St., her phone was snatched from her hand by a man riding by on a bicycle. The woman told police she did not get a good look at him and would only be able to identify him by his clothing, which was a red jacket and black skullcap.
A police canvass of the area did not turn up results. She did not have the tracking information for the $750 device, but said she would cancel her phone service.
— Kaitlyn Meade
