A surveillance camera photo of suspect wanted in an attempted rape in Soho at Spring and Sullivan Sts. at 5:30 a.m. on Sun., April 13.
Soho attempted rape
A man who followed a Soho woman to her apartment near the corner of Spring and Sullivan Sts. at about 5:30 a.m. Sun., April 13, pushed his way into the apartment, forced the victim, 25, onto her bed and began choking her, police said. The suspect told the woman he was going to rape her but he fled when her screams roused a neighbor who came to the apartment, police said.
Police issued a surveillance camera image (at right) and are asking anyone with information to phone 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Seek robber
Police are seeking the public’s help for information leading to the arrest of a man who held up a restaurant at 166 Delancey St. at 7 p.m. Mon., March 31. The suspect, who fled with an unspecified amount of cash after pulling a black-and-silver handgun, was described as a black man between the ages of 28 and 33, 6 feet tall and weighing about 165 pounds, wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and a black, puffy jacket. Phone 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Gambling investigation
Police from the 10th Precinct responded to a report at 10:20 p.m. Fri., April 4, of a man with a gun in an apartment at 233 W. 16th St. When the officers arrived there was no gunman but they found two unspecified “gambling tables.” The Police Department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and the Manhattan Vice Unit were brought in, but police declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation.
Club arrests
Police arrested two women for stealing credit cards from a patron at Falucka, a lounge at 162 Bleecker St., at 3:35 a.m. Wed., April 9. Molly Friend, 19, and Denise Batista, 18, were charged with larceny.
Two women patrons of Alibi, the lounge at 116 MacDougal St., lost a bag and a wallet to thieves at 3 a.m. Sun., April 13. Police arrested a man and a woman, Johnny Thomas, 43, and Milka Colon, 47, and charged them with stealing the unattended bag of a 29-year-old patron and a wallet from the bag of a 22-year-old patron.
Sleeping while drunk
Police had to break the window of a car stopped in the middle of the West Side Highway at Bethune St. shortly before 1 a.m. Wed., April 9, to wake up the driver, who was asleep in the car with the motor running and in gear. He was charged with driving while drunk.
At the D.W.I. checkpoint at the northeast corner of the West Side Highway and Houston St. at 3:10 a.m. Sun., April 13, police stopped a driver with bloodshot eyes who tested above the blood-alcohol legal limit of .08. The driver told police, “I had one beer — I had two beers,” and later at the police station he said, “I had two beers and a shot of tequila.”
Six other drivers were charged with D.W.I. at the West Side Highway-Houston St. checkpoints during the early hours of Sat., April 12, and Sun., April 13.
Bank robber
A man walked into the Wachovia bank branch at 463 Broadway at Grand St. shortly after noon on Sat., April 5, passed a note to a teller and then reached into the teller’s drawer, grabbed $1,040 and fled, police said. The note said, “Do not try any tricks. I have a gun, stay calm. No alarms. I’m watching you.” Police were notified, canvassed the neighborhood and stopped one potential suspect, but there were no arrests.
Robber cop suspect
The rookie Police Department officer, Christian Torres, 21, who was arrested in Berks County, Pa., last week as a suspect in a suburban bank robbery, is also suspected of robbing the Sovereign Bank branch at 57 Avenue A at E. Fourth St. twice, according to police. The first East Village incident was at 3 p.m. June 8 last year while he was a cadet in the Police Academy. He is believed to have walked out with $16,305. The second incident was on Nov. 16 at 7:30 a.m. when he is believed to have waylaid three employees outside the bank, menaced them with what appeared to be a gun and put them in the Avenue A bank’s vault before fleeing with $102,000, according to police.
He was being held in Pennsylvania on suicide watch pending a federal court arraignment.
Counterfeit vendors
First Precinct police in an S.U.V. moved on several counterfeit handbag and D.V.D. vendors on the north side of a busy stretch of Canal St. between Broadway and Mercer St. at 6:15 p.m. Sat., April 5. The vendors fled with their merchandise but some abandoned their goods, which police confiscated. No arrests were reported.
Shoplifter nabbed
The supervisor of the Duane Reade store on E. Fourth St. and Avenue A stopped a man from walking out of the place at 8:40 a.m. Wed., April 9, without paying for an item tucked in his jacket. A window was damaged during the ensuing struggle and the suspect, José Jordan, 34, was held until police arrived to charge him with grand larceny and assault. Jordan is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail pending a May 21 court appearance.
Car stolen
A woman who parked her car at the corner of Grand and Wooster Sts. at 11 p.m. Sat., April 5, returned at 11 a.m. Sunday and found it was missing, police said. The space had a “No Standing 11 p.m.-6 a.m.” sign, but police determined the car had not been towed.
Bag gone
A woman shopping for shoes at Aldo, at 579 Broadway between Prince and W. Houston Sts., on Saturday afternoon April 5 discovered at 2:35 p.m. that her bag, which she placed on the chair next to her, had been stolen, police said.
Obstructing police
Transit police charged Craig Johnson, 49, with obstructing government administration at 5 p.m. Sat., April 5, for interfering in the arrest of a suspect in the mezzanine of the Eighth Ave. subway station at 14th St. Johnson shouted and refused the arresting officers’ orders to leave the scene and called them “racist pigs,” according to police.
–Albert Amateau
