Bag-grab trio
Police are looking for two men and a woman suspected in a series of bag snatchings in a Starbucks in the Village, and at four diners and bars in Kips Bay and on the Upper West Side. Police last week said that in all the incidents, one suspect acted as lookout, another distracted the victims and another took the bags.
On Sept. 25 at 2:30 p.m. they victimized a customer at the Starbucks on Washington Square East, and on Oct. 10 at 2:30 p.m. they grabbed a bag at Good Enough to Eat, on Amsterdam Ave. at 84th St. On Oct. 16 they struck at three bars on Third Ave., Rodeo Bar & Grill, at 27th St., at 8:30 p.m.; Cavatappo Wine Bar, between 25th and 26th Sts., at 8:10 p.m.; and at Mad Hatter, at 26th St., at 7:30 p.m.
Police identified the suspects as Samuel Reynoso, 20, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and 165 pounds; Oscar Rodriguez, 26, about 5 feet 6 inches and 155 pounds, and Norma Tapia, 30, about 5 feet 6 inches and 175 pounds.
Club thugs sentenced Vassilie Giamagas, 36, and Ekkehart Schwarz, 71, were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on Thurs., Feb. 25, for hiring a 6-foot-5-inch-tall man to kidnap and threaten with torture the manager of 68 W. Third St., where they had hoped to open a lounge.
They were convicted on Feb. 5 with forcing the victim to forgive $267,000 in back rent that they owed on the property since August 2007 and forcing him to hand over $25,000 in checks. The lounge, Restaulounge-bar DeVill, never opened.
Giamagas, a Greek national who boasted to the manager that he had killed several people, including his own brother, was sentenced to 11 to 15 years in prison. Ekkehart, 71, a German architect, was sentenced to eight to 15 years; and their accomplice, Kakhaber Gogoladze, 36, a Georgian who was also convicted, is due to be sentenced later this week.
Giamagas was reportedly being held in solitary confinement at Rikers Island because of threats against the guards. He also “allegedly filed a false lien against the prosecutor,” according to a news report. The defendants are liable to face deportation after their prison sentences.
Pepper-spray muggers A Village woman, 24, told police she was walking south on the west side of Hudson St. around 12:50 a.m. Sat., Feb. 27, when a man and a woman pepper-sprayed her in the face at the corner of W. 12th St. One of the pair told her, “Get down on the ground, give me everything,” and they took her bag with credit cards, an iPod, keys and $5 cash and fled. Both were described as black, the woman, about age 20, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 115 pounds, and the man, about 25, and 5 feet 10 inches, police said.
Tribeca man stabbed A mounted police officer on duty at Christopher and Washington Sts. on Wednesday night Feb. 24 alerted plainclothes officers who arrested two men and charged them with robbing and stabbing a man, 24, in the West Village at 9:50 p.m.
Manuel Acunayades, 23, of Brooklyn, and Socrates Felix, 22, who gave a Miramar, Fla., address, were charged with mugging the victim, a Tribeca resident, on the northwest corner of Washington and Barrow Sts., taking his wallet and shoulder bag, and stabbing him in the lower back. The victim made it to Christopher St. where he hailed the mounted officer, who radioed a description of the suspects.
Anti-crime officers apprehended the pair at Jane and Washington Sts. The defendants had the victim’s shoulder bag and wallet, and each had a knife, according to the complaint filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. The victim was taken for treatment to St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Greenhouse crooks An employee of Greenhouse, the club at 150 Varick St., near Spring St. stopped Chase Morris, 27, in the club at 3:35 a.m. Tues., Feb. 16, and found him in possession of a woman’s handbag and credit cards that were not his, police said. The bag and the cards had been stolen sometime earlier from a woman resident of E. 33rd St., police said.
A Manhattan woman, 19, told police on Thurs., Feb. 18, that she was in Greenhouse around 11 p.m. Wed., Feb. 17, when an unknown suspect snatched her cell phone from her hand. The victim said that she called her cell phone from another phone and a woman answered and laughed. The victim waited a day to report the incident because Greenhouse personnel advised her to wait to see if anyone would return the phone.
Meat Market traffic rage A traffic jam in front of the Standard Hotel at 848 Washington St. around 9 p.m. Wed., Feb. 24, ended in a fight between two cab drivers, police said. Canute Garvey, 61, was arrested and charged with assault for throwing the first punch and then hitting the victim, 42, with a stick.
Soho intruder flees An employee of Pegu went to the rear office storage space of the club at Wooster and Houston Sts. at 12:08 a.m. Tues., Feb. 16, and ran into an intruder, who fled through a side door, police said. The thief had broken into a file cabinet but apparently did not have time to take anything. There was no sign of forced entry, but the club owner told police that the lock on the side entrance on Wooster St. often malfunctions in cold weather.
Prince St. burglary A resident of 156 Prince St. returned from a brief visit with a neighbor at 4:30 p.m. Tues., Feb. 16, but couldn’t open the front door, which had been locked from the inside, police said. The victim, 60, then went round the back, entered the house through a cellar door and found his apartment in a shambles. A checkbook, a laptop computer valued at $1,500 and an Amazon Kindle reader valued at $350 were stolen.
Tools taken The manager of a construction site in a building at 330 Hudson St. near Charlton St. closed the site at 3:30 p.m. Thurs., Feb 18, and opened it at 6:22 a.m. the next morning to find that more than 20 hand tools and power tools valued at $3,609 total had been stolen from the second- and third-floor storage rooms. The thieves entered through a door on the building’s north side at Charlton St. and left through a door on Hudson St., police said. They discarded a bolt cutter stolen from the site and a cut chain that had been used to secure a door, police said.
Removed ring An employee of Kiki de Montparnasse, the boutique at 79 Greene St., discovered on Wed., Feb. 10, that a double-chain diamond ring valued at $1,200 was missing from a display case, police said. A surveillance tape showed a cleaning woman, who was working her last day on the job, taking the ring, police said.
Vuitton bag vanishes A Brooklyn woman, 20, told police she was shopping at a clothing boutique at 150 Spring St. in Soho around 6 p.m. Fri., Feb. 19, when she discovered her bag was missing. The Louis Vuitton bag, valued at $1,700, held $150 in cash as well as a cell phone and credit cards. The victim did not know how the bag was taken or who had taken it, police said.
Albert Amateau
