Liberty belt
A visitor from Stuttgart, Germany refused an order to remove his belt at a police security checkpoint at the Dewey Promenade in Battery Park at 3:20 p.m. Mon., Feb. 25, police said. Peter Ulrich Lissy, 67, was arrested and charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct when he struggled with the officers and tried to move past the screening area for the Statue of Liberty ferry. He received a summons pending dismissal of the case on his agreement not to break the law again, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Subway theft
A woman who boarded a No. 2 train in the Bronx at 4 p.m. Tues., March 4 discovered when she got off at Chambers St. that someone had stolen her wallet from her bag with cash, ID and credit cards, police said.
Student brawl
Police arrested three students of the High School for Leadership and Public Service Tues. afternoon, March 4. The school alerted the First Precinct that two of the three students were going to fight, so officers followed the students as they left the school, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna said. When three students started a brawl at Nassau and Ann Sts., officers arrested them and charged them with disorderly conduct. One was 14 years old and the others were older, but Bologna did not release their names. Only the older students will receive summonses, he said.
Clothing store holdup
A man entered Bolton’s clothing store at 95 Wall St. acting like a customer at 4 p.m. Fri., Feb 29, then went up to the cashier, pretended to have a gun, demanded all the money in the register and threatened to shoot the cashier if she refused, police said. The robber, described as a black man of medium build, 5’11” and appearing “scruffy,” fled with $923, police said.
Reade St. burglary
At 143 Reade St., where considerable interior construction was going on around residents in place, a man, 76, who left his apartment at 8 a.m. Wed., Feb 27 returned at 10 p.m. to find his computer was stolen. There was no sign of forced entry, police said.
Store burglary
The manager of a clothing store at 593 Broadway between Prince and Houston Sts. opened the place at 9 a.m. Sun., March 2 and discovered $6,127 gone from the cash register and about $38,000 worth of watches and jewelry gone from several display cases, police said. The security company had phoned the manager the night before to say that a sensor in the store had registered movement. When the theft was discovered in the morning, the sensor was found covered with tape and paper, police said.
Greenwich St. burglary
A resident of 275 Greenwich St. told police a burglar had entered his apartment sometime between 2:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Mon., March 3 when he discovered a laptop computer with attached web cam and microphone had been stolen. The victim said he left the apartment with the door unlocked just after 2, returned at 3:20 p.m. and while at home he heard a door open and close but assumed it was one of his children. However, he saw his daughter when she came in at 4 p.m. and he discovered the theft a half hour later.
Car crimes
A man who parked his car at the southeast corner of Spring St. at Sixth Ave. at 10 a.m. Mon., March 3 discovered it was gone when he went to retrieve it at 5:30 p.m., police said. Police did release the car’s make and model.
A woman who parked her car at the northeast corner of Warren and Greenwich Sts. at 7 p.m. Mon., Feb 25 returned at 8 a.m. the following day and discovered that someone broke in and stole the car’s global positioning system and a $500 pair of diamond earrings from the glove compartment, police said.
A man who left his car at a parking lot at 23 Leonard St. at 2:30 p.m. Mon., March 3 retrieved it at 9:30 p.m. and discovered after he drove home that a laptop computer had been stolen from the trunk, police said.
Dipped in bag
A patron of the Seattle Coffee Roasters branch at 110 William St. discovered at 1:30 p.m. after lunch on Fri., Feb. 29 that someone had lifted her wallet from her bag. She learned later that unauthorized charges had been made on her credit card at an Adidas shop and at Best Buy, police said.
Urban rustler arrest
Police arrested Darkel Cooper, 17, on Monday afternoon, Feb. 18 at Fine Fare Foods, 545 Grand St. and charged him in connection with the theft of 21 porterhouse and shell steaks. The suspect struggled when the manager of the store near Lewis St. stopped him when he tried to walk out of the place without paying for the steaks tucked in his jacket, police said. Cooper is due to answer third degree robbery and assault charges on March 12, according to a spokesperson for the district attorney.
Arrested in extortion
Anthony Lewis, 38, and Kyle Correll, 40, accused leaders of an organization known as the “Committee on Contract Compliance,” were indicted on Tues., Feb. 26 for extortion and racketeering involving minority-owned construction contractors. The indictment was the latest since September 2006 when an investigation into the group resulted in convictions or guilty pleas and prison terms for four others and several more indictments still pending for extorting money from contractors, many of them immigrants from Asia or the Middle East, according to a statement by District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Instead of using violence as a weapon to extort payments from minority contractors, Lewis and Correll threatened and lodged fake construction complaints with government agencies to force the victims to pay up, according to the Morgenthau statement. Lewis and Correll are to be arraigned in criminal court on April 3.
— Albert Amateau and Julie Shapiro
