Thief on spree
Police are hunting for an unidentified man who has allegedly pulled off seven brazen thefts — apparently targeting young men and women in their 20s — across Greenwich Village and Kips Bay in less than three months.
The suspect, shown above in video surveillance footage, began on Feb. 28, when he hit the Chipotle restaurant at 55 E. Eighth St. around 9 p.m., snatched a 24-year-old woman’s wallet and snuck out, cops said.
He then reportedly struck on March 18 inside Think Coffee, at 250 Mercer St., entering around 3 p.m. and swiping a 28-year-old man’s laptop and electronic tablet after the victim had left the items unattended.
The suspect made off with another unattended laptop on March 22 around 2:15 p.., in the Starbucks at 45 W. Fourth St., police said.
Then on April 5, he reportedly made his move farther uptown and hit the Pit Stop bar, at 123 E. 24th St., where he stole a 26-year-old man’s bag.
Just two days later, he was back in the Village — first, around 6:30 p.m. on April 7, when he allegedly snatched a woman’s wallet and laptop inside Artichoke Pizza, at 111 MacDougal St., and then around 6 p.m. on April 8, when he allegedly stole a female New York University student’s laptop from inside a campus building at 5 University Place.
Most recently, the same suspect reportedly struck on April 14, when he entered the Pot Belly Deli, at E. 32nd St. and Park Ave. South, around 5:45 p.m. and swiped the backpack of a woman, 22, police said.
The suspect is described as a black male, between 25 and 35 years old and between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall, and was last seen on surveillance footage wearing a backpack, sunglasses and a dark, hooded sweatshirt, police said.
Senior beaten, robbed
Police are searching for an unidentified man who allegedly beat up and robbed a senior citizen inside the latter’s Lower East Side apartment building on April 15, leaving the elderly man hospitalized.
The suspect, shown above in video surveillance footage, reportedly followed the 65-year-old into the building at Madison and Pike Sts. around 6:20 p.m., and menacingly cornered him in the fourth-floor stairwell.
After the suspect demanded money, he allegedly punched the senior, causing him to fall down the stairs and suffer a fractured knee, for which he was later treated at NY Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital (formerly NY Downtown Hospital).
While the senior was down, the suspect reportedly swiped his wallet — containing $1,600 in cash and multiple credit cards — and fled the scene.
Cops described the suspect as a black male in his 30s, about 6 feet 1 inch tall and 220 pounds, last seen wearing red sweatpants, a red hooded sweatshirt, a black jacket and a red baseball cap.
Bank robber busted
Police arrested James Walton, 40, on April 16 after he was nabbed following an attempted bank robbery near Washington Square Park, and then confessed to robbing around $22,000 from 11 different banks over the past three months.
Walton reportedly walked into the Capital One bank at 21 University Place just before 11 a.m., approached a teller and passed her a note demanding cash and stating that he had a gun. The teller refused, running away from the window. Another teller recgonized Walton — because he had allegedly robbed that bank before — and immediately called 911, police said.
Along with the prior incident at that University Place bank, cops had been investigating Walton for other robberies in the Flatiron District and Midtown and on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, all since March 6.
Knowledge of the alleged crook’s past history reportedly aided the Sixth Precinct officer who was able to catch Walton on April 16, minutes after tracking him from the Greenwich Village attempted robbery site.
Police Officer Brian Daniels, who got the call that morning, immediately drove Uptown to the Flatiron District to scope out the scene, and quickly spotted Walton as he was about to enter a bank near the corner of E. 25th St. and Park Ave. South, the New York Post reported. The sharp-eyed officer jumped out of his car and arrested Walton at that corner, leading the perpetrator to reportedly groan and say, “You got me.”
Following his confession later that day, Walton was charged with nine counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery.
Septuagenarian scammer
Police arrested Michael Forman, 72, on April 16 after he allegedly conned another man out of $4,200 through a bogus apartment rental scheme.
The victim, 47, told cops he saw a listing for an apartment at 98-100 Thompson St., posted by Forman, back in February, and met him to make a deal on renting the place. The two men reportedly met on Feb. 4, inside the Citibank at 555 LaGuardia Place, where the victim handed over the cash for the first and last month’s rent, police said.
As days, weeks and then two months went by without receiving a lease or access to the apartment, the victim apparently realized that he’d been had, and reported Forman to police on April 14. The crafty senior, who lives in Chelsea, was apprehended two days later by officers who were aware of his identity based on the victim’s report.
Forman was charged with grand larceny. A police source said the elderly man has a history of scamming, and has previously been arrested for multiple similar crimes.
Don’t eat the sauce!
Eric Baez, 42, was arrested April 19 after he allegedly snuck into the basement of a Japanese restaurant and began masturbating.
Witnesses at Takashi, a ramen joint at 456 Hudson St., told cops that Baez made his way inside shortly before 4 p.m., without taking a table or getting any permission to stay. Employees said they later found him in the basement around 4:45 p.m., as he was in the middle of slapping his noodle.
Baez was charged with public lewdness and criminal trespassing.
— Sam Spokony
