STOLEN SOCK STASH
A woman paid a hefty price for some grub in Chinatown when she left $3,800 in cash stuffed in a black sock on the counter of a buffet restaurant — in an episode that’s ripe for a film plot.
The 44-year-old Bronx resident, who told police the money was her tax refund, placed the bundle on the counter at Chinese eatery Yip’s at 18 Beaver St. while she paid for her order around noon on Wednesday, Feb. 24, police say.
She then left and forgot the money, only realizing her mistake around 20 minutes later, as she was about to step on a train, according to a report.
When she returned to the restaurant, the money was gone — and the story just gets weirder from there.
Police say a surveillance video showed a woman wearing a yellow poncho picking the sock bundle off the floor, discovering the cash stuffed inside and handing it to a cashier — who, just two minutes later, handed it to a man wearing a tan jacket and blue jeans.
The mystery man is apparently known to the store’s manager, who told police he would help locate him.
ROBBERY ROMANCE?
An employee at a designer boutique in Soho seems to have a soft spot for a trendy thief who stole a $5,700 handbag from the store.
Police say the suspect in the hip heist was a regular customer at the Kirna Zabete concept store at 477 Broome St., where one employee said she usually inquired about expensive handbags.
The customer-cum-crook deviated from her usual protocol, however, when she suddenly swiped a Fendi python purse from the store’s counter at 6:22 p.m. on Friday Feb. 26, according to police.
In a police report that read like a personals ad, the stylish shoplifter was described by the store’s employee as well dressed, always wearing a hat, easy on the eyes, soft spoken, with a bright smile, blue eyes and full lips.
On the day of the robbery, she wore a black wool poncho with fur ends and was carrying her own handbag, as well as a scarf with fur, according to police.
COSTLY CON
A Tribeca man was swindled out of $200,000 trying to buy a car over the Internet, police say.
The 36-year-old Walker St. resident told police that he, together with a friend from France, had planned to buy a $750,000 vehicle from what he believed to be a car broker in Las Vegas, according to a report.
On the night of Monday Feb. 15, he went down to a Citibank branch on Wall St. to wire his share of the price to a bank account that had been supplied through a forwarded email from his friend in France, according to police.
But said friend later contacted the unsuspecting victim to tell him that his email account had been hacked, police say.
The money had already been withdrawn by then — but not by the actual broker, whose account number differed from the one supplied, according to police.
CREDIT CARD TAG TEAM
Two alleged gang members were busted for trying to use stolen credit cards at separate shops in Soho last week, police say.
In the space of half an hour on the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 23, two 21-year-olds hailing from Jersey City and Bushwick tried their luck with a pair of fraudulent credit cards at the Pink Victoria’s Secret store at 565 Broadway and the True Religion outlet at 513 Broadway, respectively, according to police.
Both of the fraudsters, one of whom had an outstanding arrest warrant for robbery, are part of the True Bosses Only gang and were arrested the same day, according to a report — but not before one of them tried resisting arrest by attempting to run and flailing his arms and legs.
