Caught wielding sword in Chinatown
On the afternoon of Wed., May 29, a police traffic sergeant noticed a man acting erratically and carrying a 16-inch long sword near Canal St. in Chinatown. She gave chase while calling for backup. Within moments, uniformed and plainclothes officers from the Fifth Precinct cornered the man in a Chinese buffet restaurant at the corner of Howard and Centre Sts.
The 35-year-old man, a resident of Kips Bay, was removed by ambulance to a hospital for a psychological exam.
He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, disorderly conduct and also false impersonation, because he gave police a phony last name, according to the Daily News. The accused reportedly has more than 30 prior arrests, mostly for drug-related offenses.
Subway victim chases & gets slashed
Police arrested two men for robbery early Sat., June 1, after they robbed two passengers on a southbound 1 subway train. The victims chased the thieves onto the streets near the Rector St. station.
The chase ended when one of the pursuing victims was slashed with a knife, but police caught up with the thieves and arrested Qwarte Moody, 20, and Dapree Peterson, 20.
The victims, both 23-year-old males, were residents of Staten Island and were going to South Ferry at about 5:40 a.m.
Police say the victim was asleep and woke up when he felt Moody reach into his pocket.
Moody and Peterson pulled out knives and one of them stated, “Give me what’s in your pockets,” according to police. Both victims complied, giving the robbers their cell phones and other property.
When the train stopped at Rector St., police said the robbers fled toward the exit and both victims chased after Peterson south on Greenwich St. and then east on Battery Place and into the Bowling Green subway station where Peterson was cornered by the two men. He then pulled out a knife and slashed one of the victims on the forearm and scalp and fled south on State St., police said.
Both victims were able to identify the robbers during the “show up” at the Staten Island Ferry terminal, police said, leading to the arrests. One cellphone, a $100 Verizon EnV Touch, was recovered. The rest of the stolen items — a BlackBerry Curve, MetroCard, driver’s license and $80 in cash — were not found.
According to a police spokesperson, the victim was treated and released.
Motorcycles stolen
Two Harley-Davidson motorcycles were snatched off the Lower Manhattan streets in the last week, police reported.
The first, a brand new black 2013 FLTSN103 model, was parked for an hour while its owner walked around the Seaport. The 44-year-old-man said he had left it outside 89 South St. at about 9 p.m. on Thurs., May 30. When he returned at 10:12 p.m. that night, the motorcycle was gone. A police canvass produced no results and no working camera was available in the area. The $22,000 motorcycle had New York plates.
Another man reported the theft of his Harley June 1 in Battery Park City, which he said must have occurred sometime between 4 p.m. on Mon., May 27 to 7 a.m. on May 30. He told police he had parked his motorcycle, an $8,000, blue 2008 Softail Fat Boy, at River Terrace and Warren St., near his residence. When he returned to where he had parked it, the bike was gone. He told police he had done an extensive check with tow pounds and marshals.
Neither Harley was recovered.
Grand theft auto Soho
A man visiting from Maryland reported the theft of his truck in Soho, police said.
The man, 78, said he had parked his green, 1994 Toyota truck in front of 106 Thompson St. at about 11 p.m. on Wed., May 29. When he came back for it the next day at about 7:30 p.m., it had been taken. The vehicle, valued at about $3,000, has Maryland plates.
According to police, the vehicle was not found in a search through tow pounds, 311, or City Marshals.
Subway cellphone snatch
An incident at a different Rector St. station was reported by a woman who told police that her phone had been snatched from her hand while on a southbound R train.
The woman, 33, said she entered the subway system at Prince St. on Fri., May 31. She got on the R train and took a seat, and noticed a group of men enter her train car at the City Hall station. At about 2 p.m., as the doors were about to close at the Rector St. station at Trinity Place, one of the men reached over, grabbed her iPhone 5 from her hand and got off the train.
The woman took the train to Brooklyn where she turned around and got back to the Rector St. station about 50 minutes later and called 911. An area search was conducted and the iPhone was tracked to 506 Richmond Terrace in Staten Island, according to police. A police response to this location, however, did not turn up the phone, valued at $650.
Police said the woman was, however, able to identify the group of people from her train, including the thief, in footage of the South Ferry Terminal. They are seeking a 17-year-old man, 150 pounds, 5’11” with brown eyes and short black hair, wearing a black baseball cap.
—KAITLYN MEADE & JEFFERSON SIEGEL
