L.E.S. holdups
Police are looking for a suspect wanted in four armed robberies of stores and a gas station on the Lower East Side between March 5 and March 20.
The robber, who waved a silver handgun or a black knife in the holdups and made his getaways in a silver Dodge Charger with Massachusetts plates, hit the United Deli and Grocery at 221 E. Broadway near Clinton St. twice, once at 2:45 a.m. on March 5 and again at 4:40 a.m. on March 19, police said. He held up the bodega at 130 Eldridge St. between Broome and Delancey Sts. at 4:08 a.m. March 20 and an hour later struck the gas station at 523 Grand St. at Jackson St.
The suspect, described only as Hispanic and in his 20s, also held up a Howard Johnson Hotel on Boston Rd. near Bronx Park at 2 a.m. March 16, police said.
Dog overboard
Three firefighters from the fireboat pier on Gansevoort Peninsula saved a dog that jumped into the river and got stuck under Pier 54 at about 12:30 p.m. Sat., March 31. The one-and-a-half-year-old female bull terrier broke away from her owner, who was walking past Pier 54 at 14th St. The dog jumped over the guardrail and plunged into the cold water.
Alerted by shouts for help, Firefighters Paul Ruckdenschel, Tim Moynihan and Lieutenant Michael Finer got into a rescue boat, sped to the adjacent pier to where the dog, BubbaSmith, was trapped under the pier 30 feet from the shore. One of the firefighters, wearing a tether, went into the water and under the pier and found the dog with her leash wrapped around a pier piling. The rescue boat towed the firefighter and the dog to shore.
Unity High fight
Two girls, both 14, students at Unity High School, the second-opportunity school run for the city Department of Education at 555 Broome St. just west of Sixth Ave., got into a fight on Wednesday afternoon March 28. One of them was unconscious for less than half a minute before she was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital for observation, according to the Department of Education. The other girl was charged as a juvenile with assault. Both were at Unity High School because they previously had been suspended from their original schools. Unity High School subleases space from The Door, an after-school program based at 555 Broome St.
E. Village bank heist
A man walked into the Sovereign Bank branch at Avenue A and E. Fourth St. at 11 a.m. Sat., March 31, passed a note demanding money to a teller and walked out with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.
Fell after seizure
A Christopher St. resident, 30, standing on a fire escape of his fourth-floor apartment, fell down the stair opening to the floor below on Monday afternoon April 2 after suffering a seizure. He was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition.
Family harassment
Police arrested Wendell Nobel, 28, a school safety officer in the Fifth Precinct, at 7 p.m. Tues., March 27, and charged him with domestic harassment. He was suspended pending resolution of the charge.
A.T.M. robbery
A woman making a withdrawal at the Chase A.T.M. at 475 W. 23rd St. at 3:40 p.m. Sun., March 25, was surprised by a man who punched her, grabbed the $200 she had just taken from a machine and fled on foot heading north on 10th Ave., police said.
Gang assault
A gang of about seven men attacked a man talking on a cell phone on the southwest corner of 10th Ave. and 26th St. at about 7:30 p.m. Sun., March 25, grabbed the cell phone and scattered into Chelsea Park and the grounds of the Elliott Chelsea Houses, police said.
Cell phone robber
A mugger punched a visitor from Hoboken in the face as he was walking down Ninth Ave. at 18th St., at about 1:30 a.m. Sat., March 24, took his cell phone, and then punched a woman who came to the victim’s aid, police said.
Stop shoplifting
Employees of the Duane Reade at 322 Eighth Ave. at 26th St. stopped a woman on Saturday morning March 24 trying to walk out without paying for four cans of sardines, four cans of chicken salad, eight packs of crackers and five 20-ounce bottles of Sprite under her jacket, police said.
Albert Amateau
