Cellphone extortion
A man and a woman were arrested and charged with extorting money from the owner of a cellphone they found in a cab on Broadway and Canal Street on Wednesday, May 25.
The suspects, Sarah Tracee, 35, and John Mastrosimone, 43, found the BlackBerry in the cab and sent an email to the owner at about 11:45 a.m. saying they would give it back to her for $500, according to the complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney. The email said if the victim didn’t pay the finder would release “sensitive information” on the BlackBerry about the victim to the public. The victim agreed to pay but told police who arrested the pair after Mastrosimone took the money, the complaint says.
Robbery project
Police arrested a man suspected of three recent robberies in City housing projects on the Lower East Side and the East Village.
Kevin Alicea, 20, held up one woman around 2:50 p.m. on May 15 at 819 FDR Drive in the Jacob Riis Houses, where she lives, police said. He grabbed her bag from around her neck, pushed her to the floor and fled, according to the complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney.
On May 24, he robbed a victim on the 10th floor of 555 FDR Drive in the Baruch Houses at 11:15 a.m. He approached the victim from behind, threw her to the floor and made off with her bag, according to the criminal complaint.
He is also charged with robbing a woman on the fourth floor of 1115 FDR Drive, in the Riis house near W. 12th Street, grabbing her bag and fleeing.
Stone Street assault
A Staten Island man told police that he and his wife were walking on Stone Street near Hanover Square around 10 p.m. Friday, May 27 when two or three assailants came at them, knocked them down and fled. A private security guard helped them to a cab. At home the couple discovered that the wife had sustained a broken right tibia and the man had facial lacerations and a knee injury.
Wooster Street robbery
A man walking to his Wooster Street home around 5 a.m. Sunday, June 5, was attacked near Prince Street by two men who beat him and took his Patek Phillippe watch valued at $25,000, police said.
Stolen motorcycle
A man parked his Ducati motorcycle in front of the building at 311 Greenwich St., and went to work only to return later to find the vehicle, valued at $15,500, had been stolen, police said.
Governors Island outing
A Queens woman, 25, told police she went to her job on Governors Island on Saturday, June 4, and put her bag under a tablecloth at 10 a.m. at her workstation near the ferry landing. Around 1 p.m. she discovered her wallet was missing from the bag, but a security guard found it on top of the table. The victim found that her credit cards, MetroCard and $25 in cash had been stolen.
River Terrace playground
A man, 26, put his book bag on the ground at the playground in Nelson Rockefeller Park on River Terrace around 6:15 p.m. Thursday, June 2 and returned to it after a game of hoops to find that it had been stolen along with his wallet, cellphone, $50 in cash and a change of shirt and trousers, police said.
Wallet picked
A visitor from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch, 199 Water St., on Sunday evening, June 5, when he discovered that his wallet had been stolen from his bag, police said. He lost his credit cards and his Brazilian driver’s license.
Construction site injury
Debris that fell from the sidewalk bridge at a problem construction site at 183 E. Broadway on Thursday morning, June 2, injured a woman pedestrian, police said. An Emergency Medical Service team responded at the location near Jefferson Street and took the victim to New York Downtown Hospital in stable condition. The site has 25 Department of Building complaints and 35 violations. The department issued a stop work order in 2009 on the grounds that the building violated the City’s “sliver law,” which restricts buildings that extend through a block.
D.O.A. on Hudson Street
Police responded to a report that a man was unconscious at 315 Hudson St. at the corner of Vandam Street at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 25. An E.M.S. team declared the man, later identified as Roberto Garcia, 60,of Brooklyn, dead at the scene. Police said there was no criminality involved.
— Albert Amateau
