Car falls 3 stories
A parking lot attendant at the Hertz garage at 12 E. 13th St. accidentally put a rented 2009 Mercedes Benz S.U.V. in reverse on Monday afternoon April 20, sending the car with himself in the driver’s seat through a 15-foot-high window, plunging three stories and landing on top of an adjacent second-story roof, police said. The attendant, whose name was not released, walked away from the wrecked car and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with superficial cuts and bruises.
The car landed on a second-story courtyard, unoccupied at 3:30 p.m. when the accident occurred, of an adjacent New York University building.
Random bottle bash
A Queens man was talking with an acquaintance at the northeast corner of Washington Square South and LaGuardia Place on Wednesday afternoon April 8, when a stranger came up and hit him in the face with a bottle, police said. Nigel Jagmohan, 35, was arrested around 4:30 p.m. and charged with felony assault. The victim sustained cuts on his face.
Burglary, no theft
A burglar broke into a house at 51 Christopher St. near Seventh Ave. South sometime between 2 p.m. Fri., April 17, and 2:45 p.m. Sun., April 19, and damaged a locked dresser and a locked jewelry box, but took nothing, police said. The suspect left behind possible evidence that was not specified, and police are investigating the incident as a burglary and criminal mischief case.
‘I need money’
Police arrested Franklin Johnson, 28, around 10:30 p.m. Wed., April 8, and charged him with robbing a woman, 24, around 9:30 p.m. as she was entering Washington Square Park at University Place. The suspect, with his hand inside his jacket pocket simulating a gun, said, “Listen, stop, hear me out. I don’t want to do this. I like white people. I need money,” police said. The victim said she had no money but could get some at an A.T.M., so the suspect went with her to a store at University Place and Waverly Place. At the store, the woman handed over $8 and the suspect fled. The victim phoned 911, went on a patrol car canvas of the area and identified the suspect, police said.
Drops booze…
A thief entered a back door of the Riviera Cafe at W. Fourth St. and Seventh Ave. South that was open for deliveries at 8:30 a.m. Fri., April 17, went behind the bar, and shoved 12 bottles of liquor into his black backpack. He was chased by the chef, who had spotted the suspect as he was leaving, police said. The thief, described as a bald black man, 6 foot 3 inches tall, dropped the bag of bottles, fled east on Christopher St. and escaped, police said. One of the bottles broke, police said.
…but not jewelry
A resident of a fourth-floor apartment at 107 University Place between 12th and 13th Sts. visited an upstairs neighbor around 3 p.m. Mon., April 13, leaving her door unlocked. She returned 45 minutes later and screamed when she found a man rummaging through her jewelry, police said. The suspect said, “I’m with the Fire Department,” but then pushed her to the floor and fled. He stole gold, silver and diamond jewelry with a total value of $27,500. A man painting a fifth- floor apartment in the building told police the suspect, described as bald black man, 6 foot 3 inches tall, wearing a black jacket and carrying a black backpack, had looked into the apartment earlier and said “Oh, I must have the wrong apartment,” and left.
Dominick St. mugging
Three young men confronted a 20-year-old male walking on Dominick St. near Sixth Ave. around 3:50 p.m. Wed., April 15, when one of them punched the man’s face, grabbed his cell phone and fled with his two companions, police said.
Bicycle thief
Police arrested Michael Wiggins, 48, and charged him with larceny shortly before 4:30 p.m. Wed., April 8, for stealing a bicycle that was chained and locked to a pole on the northeast corner of Sixth Ave. and W. 13th St. The suspect took a 4-foot metal rod from a garden at 110 W. 13th St. and used it to pry open the lock that secured the bike to the pole, police said.
Bag stolen
A woman patron of Le Royale, a club at 21 Seventh Ave. South at Leroy St., hung her handbag behind her seat with her coat on top of it on Sat., April 4, and discovered it was stolen when she was leaving the place at 2 a.m. A digital camera, an iPhone and credit cards were in the bag. The victim, 20, a Brooklyn resident, told police that unauthorized charges had been made on her credit cards.
D.W.I. tree slam
Police arrested Kenneth Ball, 30, after he drove a 2004 Nissan Pathfinder into a tree on the northwest corner of Thompson St. and Washington Square South shortly before 3 a.m. Wed., April 8. The car’s owner, a visitor from Atlanta, told police that Ball had taken the car keys from him and drove the car across the street into the tree. The suspect did not have a valid driver’s license and registered .179 in an alcohol breath field test, police said. The legal threshold is .08.
‘Coercion de ville’
Three men were indicted for crimes ranging from kidnapping to coercion in connection with a failed attempt to open a bar and club in the Village at 68 W. Third St., the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday.
Two of the defendants, Vasileios Giamagas, 35, a Greek national, and Ekkehart Schwarz, 70, a German architect, were principals in G&S Restaurants LLC, which leased the property on W. Third St. in August 2007 in order to open “Restaulounge-Bar De ’Vill.” The club never opened because of financial difficulties and construction delays.
The district attorney’s office charges that after the landlord’s agent tried and failed to collect back rent on the property, Giamagas began threatening the agent to prevent him from collecting the rent, including pointing a fake pistol at the agent and sending Kakhaber Gogoladze, 37, a Georgian national, the third defendant, to the landlord’s office to abduct the agent. Gogoladze is charged with threatening torture to force the agent to give the defendants blank company checks; and Giamagas, who purported to be a former mercenary and representative of a crime syndicate, boasted that he had killed people, including his own brother.
The stolen property includes $267,000 in unpaid rent and $25,000 from one of seven blank checks extorted from the landlord’s agent.
The three defendants were originally arraigned in Criminal Court on March 20, when Giamagas was held on $1.5 million bail and Schwarz and Gogoladze were held on $350,000 bail.
Albert Amateau
