Caught with his pants down
Early in the evening on Fri., Dec. 21, a man allegedly grabbed two backpacks from the Prada store at Prince St. and Broadway, only to be chased down two blocks away at Houston and Mercer Sts. by a plainclothes store detective and two Port Authority K9 unit police who were passing by and helped give chase. In the scuffle when the man was caught, his pants came down.
E train robber
A Queens woman, 20, was traveling on a southbound E train at 10:20 p.m., Christmas Day, when a man put a black handgun to her face, said, “Give men what you got,” and grabbed her bag with her wallet, ID, credit cards and $100 in cash, police said. The robber fled the train at the Spring St. station and the victim stayed on.
Not model behavior
A woman, 25, who engaged a man to photograph her to promote her modeling career, got more than she bargained for, according to police. She told police on Fri., Dec. 21, that the photographer had told her, “I want your soul and spirit,” during a photo session at Manhattan Mini Storage on W. 14th St. and 10th Ave. He also said, “I want to be with you sexually,” she added. The victim, an Upper East Side resident, said she was afraid the photographer would hurt her if she accepted any modeling jobs.
Murder declines
The Manhattan murder rate dropped sharply in 2007, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced, citing figures that show a 40 percent decrease in homicide in the borough for the year ending Dec. 18, with 65 murders in Manhattan during that period.
The decrease in Manhattan murders outpaces the murder rate drop in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, said Morgenthau in a press statement. Citywide, the murder rate is also down, and fewer than 500 murders are expected by the end of the year — fewer than in any year since 1963. Manhattan is expected to have only one-fourth as many murders as in 1963 and less than a third as many as in 1937 when reliable records were first kept.
The decrease in homicides and other violent crimes in Manhattan has enabled the District Attorney’s Office to focus more attention and resources on financial crimes, Morgenthau said. In the 2007 fiscal year, the Manhattan D.A.’s Office returned $43 million in fines, penalties and seizures to the state and the city, an increase of more than 40 percent over revenues returned in the 2006 fiscal year.
Hit-and-run arrest
Police arrested Andranik Sargsyan, 21, of Jackson Heights, Queens, and charged him with driving while intoxicated and a hit-and-run offense in which two woman were injured at 10:19 p.m. Mon., Dec. 24, at W. 17th St. and Eighth Ave.
The victims, a Village resident, 28, and an Upper West Side resident, 38, were left unconscious on the street after the northbound vehicle hit them as they were crossing the avenue. They were taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in serious but stable condition.
The driver was arrested at W. 31st St. at Eighth Ave. where a motorist who witnessed the accident and followed, identified him, police said. Sargsyan had an alcohol test level of .15, nearly double the .08 legal limit, police said.
Albert Amateau
