Weapons arraignment
Jonathan Shaw, 57, an East Village tattoo artist, pleaded not guilty at his Jan. 11 State Supreme Court arraignment on charges of illegal possession of assault rifles, handguns, ammunition and knives found in his rented South St. storage locker. Shaw, son of famed big band leader Artie Shaw, was arrested Nov. 6, 2010 after an employee of a shipping company notified police about a cache of weapons in Shaw’s Manhattan Mini Storage locker at 220 South St. Shaw has been free on $250,000 bond pending a March 22 court appearance on the 89-count indictment for unlicensed possession of weapons including an assault rifle, a .30 caliber semiautomatic rifle, a 12-guage pump-action pistol grip shot gun, a British army rifle, more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, five pairs of brass knuckles and 68 illegal knives and daggers, including a bayonet. Shaw was arranging to ship the weapons to Los Angeles when he was arrested. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. referred to the Jan. 8 fatal shootings in Tucson, Ariz. at the Jan. 11 arraignment. “The events of the past weekend remind us that gun violence continues to plague our nation,” Vance said, pledging to prosecute illegal weapons owners and dealers and get stockpiles of illegal guns off the streets.
Woman, 81, mugged
A strapping woman, described as being 5’11” and weighing nearly 200 pounds, knocked an 81-year-old woman to the floor of the Fulton St. subway station around 10:40 p.m. Tues. Jan. 4 and made off with her bag, according to reports. The victim was returning to her Greenpoint home after her office cleaning job when the suspect followed her and attacked her just before she reached the turnstile, according to a New York Post item. The victim, Madeline Klima, told the Post that the mugger made off with her paychecks totaling $800.
Bank robbery arrest
Police arrested Enrique Cova, 43, Thurs., Jan. 6 and charged him with two robberies of the Bank of America branch on Bayard St. near Bowery, one on Christmas Eve and the other on New Year’s Eve. The suspect, who finished serving a seven-year prison term for robbery a year ago, walked into the bank at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, and passed a teller a note saying, “Give me 100 $100 bills or we will take hostages and move in.” He fled with an undetermined sum of cash, according to charges filed with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. The defendant returned to the same branch at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, passed another note to a teller but fled without anything, according to the charges. He is being held pending a Feb. 1 court appearance.
Movie and dinner
A Bayonne, N.J. woman parked her 2010 Jeep Wrangler at the corner of W. Broadway and Grand St., around 11 p.m. Sun., Jan. 16 while she went to a movie and had some supper. But she returned a couple of hours later and discovered that the car had been stolen, police said. Her bag, with an iPod and another cell phone, were in the car, police said. The victim’s EZ Pass electronic record showed the pass had been used around 8:30 p.m. the following day at the Queens Midtown Tunnel, police said.
Car break-in
A Queens woman parked her car in front of 58 Walker St. around 2 p.m. Sat., Jan. 15 and returned at 4:42 p.m. to discover the driver’s side window smashed and her bag with credit cards, $60 in cash, the car’s Global Positioning System and her Gucci eyeglasses gone.
Subway theft
A transit policeman spotted a suspect hovering over a sleeping passenger on an E train being held in the Fulton St. station around 4:20 a.m. Sat. Jan. 15. The suspect, John Gathers, 55, was arrested and charged with larceny after he cut the sleeper’s pocket and removed $300 in cash, police said.
Grabbed from shoulder bag
A Queens woman told police she was getting off a No. 4 train at Broadway and Wall Sts. around 4:30 p.m. Tues., Jan. 11 when she discovered that a thief had stolen her iPad, valued at $800, from her shoulder bag.
Seaport snatch
A visitor from North Carolina who was paying for food at a cart on the third floor of Pier 17 in the South St. Seaport around 2:35 p.m. Sat. Jan. 15 put his wallet on the counter for a moment when a woman grabbed it and fled, police said. The victim told police he followed the woman who got onto a waiting Water Taxi. He demanded his wallet back but the woman pretended she didn’t understand him. She was gone when the boat pulled away, leaving the victim poorer by $850, which was in his wallet, police said.
Bag stolen
A visitor from Madrid, Spain, who was having coffee at the Starbucks at 233 Broadway around 2 p.m. Sun., Jan. 16, left her bag on a table when she went to another table to talk with a friend, police said. A man picked the bag up, took it to an employee and said it had been forgotten. He returned a short time later, told the employee that the woman who forgot the bag was just outside talking with someone and said he would give it to her. He ran off with the bag containing the victim’s Spanish ID, credit cards and 10 Euros, police said.
Lost uptown
A Manhasset woman was about to pay her cab fare at 3 a.m. Sun., Jan. 9 after a trip to 54 Wall St. from Midtown when she discovered that her wallet and jewelry, including a David Yurman ring and bracelet, with a total value of $1,900 had been stolen from her bag. She told police she last checked her bag at Brother Jimmy’s, a restaurant on Lexington Ave. in Murray Hill.
— Albert Amateau
