Bicycle thieves
Two men riding bicycles stopped a woman walking on Broadway between Pine and Cedar Sts. at 12:20 a.m. Tues. Sept. 12, asked her if she had a lighter, then grabbed her, snatched her bag with $600 in cash and rode away south on Broadway on what appeared to be mountain bikes, police said. The victim, 41, said one thief was a black man with long braids and dark complexion. She described his accomplice only as a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.
Stuy student threatened
A Stuyvesant High School student, 14, told police that a stranger sat next to him on an E train at Chambers St. as he was going home to Queens after school on Wed. Sept. 6 and demanded that he give up his cell phone. The student refused and the stranger put his hand in his shirt and said “Give me your cell phone or I’ll shoot you in the head.” When the student screamed, “He has a gun and he’s going to shoot,” the stranger said “I’ll see you tomorrow,” and fled from the train which had not yet left the station.
Downtown waiter charged
Dennis Szyller, 21, was indicted Sept. 8 for grand larceny and identity theft in connection with skimming credit card information from customers when he was a waiter at Les Halles Downtown, a restaurant at 15 John St.
Szyller is also charged in an unrelated assault case for severely beating a victim on July 23 outside Stereo, a club at 512 W. 29th St. He also faces charges of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia found in his Washington Heights apartment during the investigation, according to the district attorney’s office.
The indictment says Szyller used a device to capture credit card information from 14 Les Halles customers in May, June and July of this year. The information was transferred to other cards and used to make more than $20,000 in unauthorized purchases, according to prosecutors.
Les Halles Downtown assisted in the investigation. Szyller is being held pending arraignment on Sept. 20.
Soho construction site
Burglars broke into a commercial building being converted to residential use at 459 Broadway between Grand and Howard Sts. on Monday morning Sept. 11 and made off with tools valued at $800, police said.
Assault on Houston
A visitor from Winnetka, Ill. told police that he tried to walk away from an argument on Monday afternoon Sept. 11 on the corner of Varick and W. Houston St. but his adversary slashed him in the back when he turned away. The slasher, described as a black man about 25, 5’6” wearing a red jacket, white shirt and black jeans, fled Uptown and the victim, 43, was treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Pot bust
Police arrested Cheryl Bartley, a city Human Resources Administration employee, at 8:45 a.m. Wed. Sept. 6 in front of 12 Murray St. near City Hall, accusing her of smoking and possessing marijuana.
Locker room theft
A patron of the Equinox fitness center at 54 Murray St. discovered that his locker had been forced open on Saturday afternoon Sept. 9 and his credit cards were stolen, police said. More than $1,000 in unauthorized charges was made at Hudson Wine & Spirits in Tribeca, police said.
Bank charges
A woman resident of Park Row told police that she discovered on Sept. 6 that a neighbor has made a total of $5,150 in unauthorized charges on her credit cards and withdrawals from her account in the Washington Mutual branch on Broadway and Chamber St. The case is still under investigation, police said.
Canal St. burglars
Police are investigating two separate but similar burglaries at 533 Canal St. between Greenwich and Washington Sts. A resident of the building told police on Sept. 8 that a thief had entered the apartment through a window at a fire escape and made off with a laptop computer, a digital camera, personal I.D. and credit cards. On Sept. 10 another resident said a thief had entered the apartment via a bathroom window and made off with a digital camera.
–Albert Amateau
