Snuck in to shoot up skirt
A woman, 27, told police that when she walked into her building at 10 Jones St. around 1 a.m. on Thurs., May 30, a man — later identified as Joseph Pagan, 38 — snuck in behind her, sidled up next to her in the building’s vestibule, held his cell phone under her skirt and took several photos. The woman said she didn’t even realize what Pagan was doing until she felt his hand against her leg. After the voyeur fled the scene, she immediately called police to report the incident.
Officers were able to apprehend Pagan less than an hour later, during a canvass of the area, and cuffed him after a positive identification by the victim. Pagan was charged with unlawful surveillance at the scene, and a police source said that the District Attorney’s Office has also slapped him with a burglary charge.
Peacemaker gets slashed
A man, 38, told police he was trying to step in between his friends and another man, Carlos Dominguez, 22, to stop their dispute, which was occurring near the corner of W. 14th St. and Eighth Ave., around 12:30 a.m. Sat., June 1. But when the peacemaker informed the aggressor that he was about to call the authorities, Dominguez reportedly pulled out a knife and chased him down the street, eventually slashing him and leaving a minor cut on the man’s back.
By that time, one of the victim’s friends had already called the police, and officers arrived in time to apprehend Dominguez before he could flee. He was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Bodega worker pulls knife
Police arrested a disgruntled bodega employee on the afternoon of Thurs., May 30, after he threatened a customer with a knife he had stashed behind the counter.
The customer, 32, told officers that while he was inside the store, 256 W. 14th St. Food Corp., just east of Eighth Ave., around 4:30 p.m., he was trying to talk on his cell phone, and asked the employee, Khiballah Al-Aabli, 22, to quiet down after Al-Aabli began yelling at a co-worker. But instead of following that age-old mantra “The customer is always right,” Al-Aabli reportedly picked up the knife and waved it at the man, telling him, “This is my store!” and aggressively asking him, “Do we have a problem?”
The customer, fearing for his life, called police, who arrived minutes later. When officers spoke to both men, Al-Aabli apparently realized his error and willingly turned over the knife. He was charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Phone thieves in club
Early on Fri., May 31, two men — Ali Afzal, 21, and Adnan Muzaffar, 28 — were allegedly working together, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., at Tenjune nightclub, at 26 Little W. 12th St., to jostle, sneak up on, and otherwise distract women patrons in order to grab the phones out of their purses, police said. Toward the end of the pair’s spree, one of the victims, 22, informed the club’s management, who reported the activity and got a couple of officers to show up at the establishment.
The young woman, along with the help of three other victims — all in their late teens or early 20s — pointed out the two thieves to cops, who quickly arrested them after finding all four of the stolen phones stashed in their pockets. Afzal and Muzaffar were both charged with grand larceny.
Phone-photo fracas
Two women turned from friends to enemies all because of a cell phone photo, and now one of them is facing charges after a heat-of-the-moment brawl.
The alleged victim, 44, told police that while she was waiting with her friend Vanessa Farley, 43, for a southbound A train at the W. Fourth St. subway station around 11 p.m. on Tues., May 21, she showed Farley a photo she had recently taken on her phone’s camera. The shot was apparently so offensive to Farley that she smashed the phone on the ground — breaking it beyond repair — and then attacked her friend by biting and scratching her ear, neck and finger, police said.
The victim reported the incident to police several days later, and Farley was arrested May 30, and charged with assault and criminal mischief.
Sam Spokony
