Teens’ bag snatched in Washington Market Park
Three teens fell victim to a thief while they were playing basketball in a Tribeca park on April 12, police said.
The boys, aged 13, 15 and 17, told cops that while they were shooting hoops in Washington Market Park around 4:30 p.m., they left their belongings in a bag outside the court. While they were playing, one of the teens said he saw an unknown person — described as black male, approximately 17 years old, 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds — pick up the bag and put it back down.
Once the game was over, the three boys said they walked over to pick up the bag — which contained their cell phones and house keys, along with a debit card — only to find that it was gone.
Rental car stolen
Police arrested a 26-year-old man a week after they say he stole a luxury rental car from a Financial District parking garage on April 4.
An employee at the 10 S. William St. garage told cops that the 2014 Infiniti Q50 — valued at $45,000 — was an Enterprise rental that had been returned to the lot by a previous renter on the evening of April 4. The car was left in the garage with the keys inside and the doors unlocked, but it was believed to be secure because it had been outfitted with an Enterprise “starter kit” that requires an active Enterprise keycard to start the ignition, the employee told police.
When a renter with a reservation for the Inifinit arrived at the garage on April 5 to pick it up, employees realized it had been stolen during the previous night. Initial searches for the car using its identifying information were unsuccessful — but cops eventually tracked the vehicle to the Williamsburg area in Brooklyn, where the suspect was arrested on April 11. He was charged with grand larceny of an automobile.
Missing briefcase
A thief struck at a Soho bar and restaurant on April 9, snatching an unattended briefcase, police said.
The victim, 52, told cops he was at T-Bar Soho, 331 W. Broadway, for a work-related dinner that evening, and placed the briefcase on the floor near his table. When he got up and turned to retrieve the briefcase — which contained both a Samsung Galaxy and BlackBerry cell phone and an iPad — after finishing the meal around 7:45 p.m., he realized that it was gone.
There were no witnesses, police said.
— SAM SPOKONY
