Burglary pattern
Police are investigating a pattern of commercial burglaries Downtown where suspects entered or attempted to enter stores by lifting gates, breaking through front doors and making off with cash and merchandise, according to Officer Tom Moran, First Precinct anti-crime officer.
The manager of Lenny’s restaurant, 108 John St., told police on Mon. May 9 that thieves broke a front door lock sometime on the weekend and made off with an automated teller machine and an unspecified amount of cash. Police are examining the surveillance camera tape, Moran said.
A previous break-in that appears to be part of the pattern occurred on Saturday night April 23 when the thieves broke through the front door of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, 125 Chambers St., and took cash, totaling $1,457, including the entire drawers of two cash registers. A surveillance camera was not functioning at the time and an employee of the candy shop was asleep in the basement at the time of the burglary, Moran said.
Luxury belt lift
Thieves broke a front door and lifted the roll-down gate of the Scott Mallory men’s shop at 158 Spring St. in Soho on Sunday April 24 and took a sterling silver belt buckle with diamonds valued at $2,800, another silver belt buckle with sapphires valued at $3,900, a crocodile skin belt valued at $395 and a stingray skin belt valued at $500, police said.
Sticky-finger arrest
Employees of the Duane Reade at 250 Broadway across from City Hall Park stopped a man on the afternoon of Tues. May 3 as he was walking out with a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, a box of rice and a bottle of cologne without paying for them, police said. The suspect, Jaime Garcia, 45, was charged with illegal entry because he had signed a trespass notice in 2001 agreeing not to enter the store, police said.
Four thieves
Four men, all dressed in black, walked into the Ann Taylor shop at 555 Broadway near Prince St. in Soho at 3:30 p.m. Fri. May 6 and walked out with assorted merchandise, police said. While one of them distracted the sales representative, the others gathered shoes, accessories, a jacket and headwear, police said. They all fled on foot.
Watch out
A burglar entered a residential building at 505 Broome St. at W. Broadway through an unlocked front door on Sunday night May 1, broke down the door of an apartment and fled with a Cartier watch valued at $5,000, police said.
Burglar flees
A resident of 160 Prince St., near Thompson St. found a man trying to break into the front door of the building with a screwdriver at 3 p.m. Wed. May 11, police said. The burglar, described as Asian or Pacific Islander, 5 ft. 6 in., about 130 lbs., light complexion, straight black hair and wearing a blue shirt, fled at the approach of the resident.
Tool theft
Thieves got into a construction site at 22 Mercer St. between Grand and Canal Sts. on Thursday night April 29 and stole $1,335 worth of tools, mostly drills, after forcing an office door and prying open a tool box, police said. Police did not know how the thieves entered the building, which had scaffolding around it but no doors or windows.
Hudson Sq. site
The construction site of a high-rise residential building at 34 Renwick St. between Canal and Spring Sts. in Hudson Sq. was the target of burglars who broke a glass front door, pried open an inner door and made off with two laptop computers and tools with a total valued of $2,300, police said.
Soho break-in
Three burglars broke into the DKNY store at 420 W. Broadway at Spring St. shortly after midnight on Monday April 25 by tossing a cobblestone through the plate glass front, police said. They made off with a plasma screen television valued at $17,000. A surveillance camera recorded the images of three men all about 5 ft. 8 in., one described as a white Hispanic, another described as black man with a dark complexion weighing about 170 lbs. and a bald man with a dark complexion also weighing about 170 lbs.
Traffic fatal
A Lower East Side resident was crossing the street at the corner of 17th St. and Third Ave. at 12:46 p.m. Fri. May 20 when a car hit him, police said. Wah Jen Moy, 54, of 90 Pitt St., was taken to Cabrini Hospital where he was declared dead at 1:11 p.m. The diver stopped but was not charged and there was no criminality connected with the accident, police said.
Manhole explosion
A short circuit in a Con Edison manhole at the corner of Broadway and Broome St. about 10 p.m. Thurs. May 19 caused a fire and a build-up of carbon monoxide, followed by an explosion, according to Ian Michaels, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection.
D.E.P. emergency workers opened the street around the site.
“Whenever there’s a carbon monoxide build-up, our HAZMAT crew opens the street to air it out and we send crew members to neighboring buildings to find any seepage into basements. If there is carbon monoxide in a building where people are asleep, it could be very dangerous. But we didn’t detect anything,” Michaels said.
—Albert Amateau
WWW Downtown Express
