Villager photo by Patrick Hedlund
Woman is all right after tumble onto the tracks
Police and firefighters removed a woman by stretcher from the subway station at Spring St. and Sixth Ave. on Thursday afternoon April 23, after receiving a call about someone falling onto the train tracks. The woman was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent’s Hospital, although the report stated that she was “up and walking” after the incident, according to a Fire Department spokesperson.
Arrested for stalking
Police arrested Jose Garcia, 27, of 174 Rivington St., on Fri., April 10, and charged him with stalking a woman youth counselor in the storefront church at 162 Attorney St., between Stanton and Houston Sts., for more than two years.
The victim counseled Garcia twice a week in 2005, and in June 2006 he sent her a letter saying, “I don’t want you to get married. I’m going to hurt you and hurt myself,” according to the complaint.
Garcia continued to hang around the church between March and September 2008, and made as many as five calls a day to the victim’s cell phone, saying, in substance, that no one else could have her and that he would hurt her because she wasn’t nurturing him, according to the complaint.
Garcia approached another woman counselor recently and told her he felt he would do something “very bad.” When Garcia was arrested on April 10 in front of the church, he had a brass-knuckle knife with a 12-inch blade in his right pants leg, according to the complaint. He was charged with weapon possession, in addition to stalking.
A.T.M. suspect caught
Valentin Garcia, 35, who was arrested after he jumped into the East River while fleeing police on the Lower East Side around 3 a.m. Tues., April 21, was charged as a suspect in several robberies of A.T.M. machines on the Lower East Side and elsewhere since December, police said.
Garcia was collared after he tried to steal a cash machine outside a store at 23 Rutgers St. by ramming it with his van on April 21, police said. He fled on foot from the scene, ran three blocks down Rutgers St., across South St. and jumped into the river. When a police harbor crew pulled him out of the water, he reportedly said, “I wasn’t in the van. I don’t know anything about A.T.M. machines.”
At his booking at the Seventh Precinct, Garcia reportedly used the single phone call he was allowed to tell a friend, “Get all of the cash out of my mattress.”
Garcia is a suspect in an April 12 incident in which a man driving a white van stole an A.T.M. from in front of 352 W. 52nd St. On March 20, an A.T.M. on West Houston St. was knocked down and hauled away in a van. The same kind of theft took place on the Lower East Side in January, and a similar one occurred in December on the Lower East Side.
Garcia is also charged with driving his car into a towing-service employee on April 8, knocking him down and driving off. He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail pending a July 23 court appearance.
Morton St. burglary
The resident of a second-floor apartment at 56 Morton St. was asleep on his couch around 5:25 a.m. Sat., April 25, when he awoke to find an intruder in the place who fled out the front door, police said. The victim’s iPod, BlackBerry, Apple laptop computer, watch and wallet with $200 were stolen. The victim, 43, told police that he had left his door unlocked.
Forgetful thief
A woman resident of 174 Thompson St. was away from her apartment on Tuesday morning April 14 when her landlord left her a phone message that someone was seen pulling down her window and exiting on the fire escape with two bags in his hand. The victim returned home to find the bags, with miscellaneous underwear and jewelry, were still by the window and a passport with the name Fernando Rodriguez was on the floor in the apartment.
Four days later, police arrested the suspect, Fernando Da Rocha, 35, and charged him with burglary.
Booze break-in
A burglar broke the glass door of Lima’s Taste Ceviche Bar, 122 Christopher St. at the corner of Bedford St., around midnight Mon., April 20, stole a bottle of gin and a bottle of whiskey from an unlocked cabinet, and fled, police said.
Construction injury
A construction worker fell about 9 feet from a scaffold at 293 W. Fourth St. at W. 11th St. and struck his head around 2 p.m. Thurs., April 23. The man, 50, was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in serious condition.
Sex and stolen wallet
Gabriel Rios, 25, of the Bronx was arrested at 5:30 a.m. Mon., April 20, on Christopher St. near Bleecker St. along with David Healy, 40, and both were charged with public lewdness. Rios was also charged with two counts of possession of stolen property after showing police a stolen wallet with credit cards that he said was his own. Rios was being held pending a July 15 court appearance. Healy pleaded guilty to public lewdness and was sentenced to two days of community service, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Intruder walks out
A woman who went to her cleaning job in a fourth-floor apartment at 207 W. 14th St. at 8:30 a.m. Sat., April 18, noticed the door had been forced open and saw a stranger rummaging around in the apartment, police said. “What are you doing here?” she asked, whereupon the intruder picked up his shoulder bag and walked out. Police responded to the call and canvassed the area, but did not find a suspect. It was not determined if anything was stolen.
‘Waiting for food’
Police arrested Kenneth Morgan, 55, a resident of the Bowery Mission, and charged him with burglary and larceny after employees of a restaurant at 357 West Broadway found him on the second floor around 2 a.m. Wed., April 22, rummaging around. “I’m waiting for food from the restaurant,” the suspect told an employee, according to the charges. Police were called after one of the workers discovered his iPod was missing. Morgan was being held pending a May 15 court appearance.
Harassment and assault
A Brooklyn woman, 23, was walking on Seventh Ave. South at Christopher St. at 8:30 p.m. Sat., April 25, when a woman acquaintance began verbally abusing her, then hitting her in the face and finally cutting her left wrist with an unknown instrument, police said. The victim fled in fear to Elmhurst General Hospital in Queens to receive three stitches to her wrist. While at the hospital, she received a text message from the suspect, according to police, who arrested Madalaine Santana, 18, the following day for first- and second-degree assault.
Albert Amateau
