Baby D.O.A
Ninth Precinct police received a 911 call at 11:35 p.m. Sun., March 9, from the Jacob Riis Houses about a 7-month-old boy having difficulty breathing. When officers and an Emergency Medical Service team arrived at the fifth-floor apartment at 178 Avenue D, the baby’s family was administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They rushed the child to Beth Israel Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. The Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating.
Fake bomb threat
An anonymous 911 caller said, “There’s a bomb in 80 Eighth Ave. I’m not kidding around,” at 2:10 p.m. Mon., March 10, bringing police to canvas the high-rise office tower on Eighth Ave. and W. 14th St. from the roof to the basement. There was no bomb, police said.
Storage room theft
A thief forced open the door of a storage room in the apartment building at 345 W. 14th St. and stole 10 bicycles, hand and power tools, a box of glassware and other items belonging to residents and the building maintenance staff with a total value of $4,700 sometime between Feb. 18 and 11 a.m. on Mon., March 10, when the theft was discovered, police said.
MetroCard sharps
Transit police arrested Alfonso Serrato, 37, in the subway mezzanine at 14th St. and Seventh Ave. on Tuesday afternoon March 11 after seeing him manipulating a MetroCard to create a new balance. They charged him with forgery and larceny after they found 168 similarly altered MetroCards in his jacket pocket.
Michael Little, 51, was arrested in the Eighth Ave. subway station at 23rd St. and charged with manipulating a MetroCard to create a new balance. He had six other similar cards in his pocket, police said.
Bank robbery
Police are looking for a man who walked into the Wachovia bank branch at 66 Ninth Ave. at W. 15th St. at 10:55 a.m. Fri., Feb. 29, waved a handgun at a teller and demanded money. The thief, described as being in his 30s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds and having a mustache, was wearing a black, hooded jacket, dark pants, black gloves and light-brown-tinted glasses. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Bedford burglary
A burglar entered an apartment at 72 Bedford St. at the corner of Commerce St. on Mon., March 10, and made off with several items including cameras and a computer, police said. There was no sign of forced entry.
Menaced in West Village
A West Village resident said he was walking on Grove St. after turning from Bleecker St. around noon Wed., March 12, when a man he described as “scruffy” who had been watching him from the corner fell into step behind him. The victim, who limps because of recent knee surgery, said he reversed direction and faced the follower, who turned away and beat a retreat.
Subway pickpocket
A woman passenger, 31, who boarded a northbound No. 6 train at Canal St. at 1:45 a.m. Sat., March 15, discovered her wallet had been stolen and got off at the Astor Pl. station to tell police. She discovered an unauthorized charge of $300 on her credit card.
Main break
A 12-inch water main broke at a hydrant connection on E. 13th St. between University Pl. and Fifth Ave. at 11 a.m. Fri., March 14. A crew closed 13th St., repaired the break and restored water service and reopened the street before the evening rush, said a Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson.
Saturday D.W.I.
Police arrested four motorists at West Village traffic-safety checkpoints during the early hours of Sat., March 15, and charged them with driving while intoxicated.
At the checkpoint on the northwest corner of West and W. Houston Sts., a Manhattan man was arrested at 3:50 a.m. and charged after he tested .117 on an alcohol breath test, considerably over the legal .08 limit. Five minutes earlier at the same checkpoint, a New Jersey man driving a 2008 Dodge was arrested and charged after a field alcohol test score of .15 and a latter test of .083. At the checkpoint at West and Gansevoort Sts., a driver was arrested and charged at 3 a.m. after he was driving erratically, police said.
At a checkpoint on the southeast corner of Clarkson and Greenwich Sts. police stopped another driver who was backing up in an attempt to avoid the checkpoint by cutting through a filling station at 2:40 a.m. The driver had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol but refused to take a field test, police said. However, he was arrested for driving a car that had no registration, insurance or inspection sticker.
Chased thief in vain A patron of Bar 13, 35 E. 13th St., was dancing at 1:50 a.m., Fri., March 14, when she saw a man snatch her bag from the chair where she left it, police said. The woman chased the man as he ran down 13th St. but lost him when he got into a cab that drove off.
Bags gone A patron of 99 Below, the bar at 99 MacDougal St., noticed her bag was gone from the floor behind her chair where she put it at 10:20 p.m. Wed., March 12, police said.
A woman dining at Cosi, 841 Broadway at 13th St., at 5 p.m. Mon., March 10, discovered that someone had dipped into her bag, which was on a chair behind her, and took her wallet, police said. Unauthorized charges of $2,000 were made on her American Express credit card at P.C. Richards at 5:17 p.m. and an unauthorized charge was made later on her bank card at a Mobil Exxon station, police said.
A patron of Village, the bistro at 62 W. Ninth St., discovered her bag was missing from the floor next to her at 8:30 p.m. Mon., March 10, police said.
Albert Amateau
