Book-signing fireworks
Police are looking for whoever broke in and placed fireworks inside a West Village tea shop the night before mob daughter Rita Gigante’s Sept. 18 appearance there to sign copies of her new book.
An employee of the Sullivan Street Tea & Spice Company, at 208 Sullivan St., was opening up on the morning of the book signing when he realized that someone had used extra-strength glue to seal the front-door padlock shut. He reported the criminal mischief, and when police arrived they found that two unlit fireworks were taped to the shop’s windows, with cigarettes attached to them.
Two Bomb Squad officers were called to the scene, but there were no explosions. Gigante, who is the daughter of famed mobster Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, went through with the signing of her book as planned. A memoir, it’s titled “The Godfather’s Daughter: An Unlikely Story of Love, Healing and Redemption.”
Lohan steers into trouble
Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested early on Wed., Sept. 19, after hitting a pedestrian with her Porsche on W. 16th St., the Daily News reported.
Lohan, 26, was charged with leaving the scene of the accident, which took place at around 12:30 a.m. and resulted in a local chef being struck on the leg as she drove between the Maritime and Dream Downtown hotels.
The injured man, Jose Rodriguez, told the Daily News that Lohan was slurring her words and smelled like alcohol, but police apparently didn’t perform a Breathalyzer test on the “Mean Girls” star, and aren’t charging her with D.W.I.
N.Y.U. bathroom peeper
Police arrested Felipe Castano, 21, after he was caught using a cell phone to record a video of another man using the bathroom at an N.Y.U. building on Washington Square.
The victim, 28, quickly realized he was being watched while sitting on the toilet at around 10:30 p.m. on Thurs., Sept 13., and reported the incident upon leaving the campus building at 71 Washington Square South. Castano was charged with a sex crime of unlawful surveillance.
Woman killed by train
A Staten Island woman was killed after being struck by a subway train in the West Village on the morning of Tues., Sept. 11.
Police have identified the woman as Danielle Dibono, 34, who was pronounced dead at 9:16 a.m., shortly after being run over by an uptown No. 2 train entering the 14th St. station at Seventh Ave.
It is still unclear how she got onto the tracks, but police said that no criminal is suspected at this time.
Bank bandit ID’d
Police have identified the wanted man who robbed multiple banks in Gramercy and Midtown over a two-week span, making off with nearly $4,000.
Jerry Walton, 48, who police said is black and about 5 feet 6 inches tall, first hit a Sovereign bank branch on Park Ave. South near E. 21st St. on Aug. 28, where he passed a demand note to the teller and walked away with $1,143, police said.
Walton then struck twice on Sept. 4, first at a Marathon bank on Fifth Ave. near 29th St., where he ended up running away with no cash after the teller refused to hand it over, and then at a Chase branch on E. 23rd and First Ave., where he made off with only $50.
On Sept. 13, the robber threatened a teller at a Citibank branch on Broadway near 56th St. by telling him that he had a gun, and walked off with $2,620.
Walton was identified after his fingerprints were lifted from the counter of his first heist location, police said.
Glass smashers gone wild
Police arrested Rodney Murphy, 26, after he busted the storefront windows of a Greenwich Village bistro early on Sat., Sept. 15. Murphy was charged with criminal mischief after he was caught kicking through the glass outside Jack Bistro & Bar, at 80 University Place, around 2 a.m.
Just down the street, three men were also arrested around midnight on Sept. 15 after an employee of the Epicurean Market bodega, at 45 University Place, reported that they had smashed his front windows. Johnathan Davis, 19, Hendrick Sererino, 18, and Justin Marrero, 18, were all charged with criminal mischief.
Finally, John Doe, 24, was also nabbed for criminal mischief, at around 2 a.m. on Fri., Sept. 14, when a witness saw him repeatedly punching the window of a car parked in front of 15 Charles St. until it shattered. It was unclear in the report why he decided to smash the Honda Civic, which belonged to a 26-year-old woman.
— Sam Spokony
