Grand Larceny: Missing ice must have had help
Expensive jewelry may dazzle, but its abilities to amaze stop short at growing legs. So a resident of the west 20s, who left her apartment at 9am one morning in early May and returned at 7pm to find several items of pricey ice missing, suspects the A-list accessories had some help in their journey out of the building to parts unknown. The victim, whose losses totaled $6,690 (including a $2,900 Tiffany bracelet and a $2,300 Mikimoto pearl necklace) told police that work was being performed in her apartment by a construction company while she was out, and that all five items of missing jewelry were stored in the same location (a drawer in the closet).
Theft of Services: Belligerent barflies push and flail
They sure could knock them down — too bad they couldn’t come up with the cash to pay for the $376.31 worth of liquor when the bill came due. That happened at 12:40am on Sun., May 5, when two female patrons of The Park club refused to pay their bar tab. Police were called to the scene, where Defendant #1 (a 24-year-old) was placed under arrest, flailing her arms and shoving the arresting officer in an attempt to avoid being handcuffed. Defendant #2, who at 25 was one year older but none the wiser than her drinking buddy, was also arrested for, according to the criminal complaint, “obstructing the investigation by way of grabbing the arresting officer, pushing and shoving and acting in a disorderly manner.”
Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance: White line meets thin blue line
Bereft of a mirror, two twitchy men in their mid-twenties looking for a fix improvised by using their mobile communication device as a platform for getting high. That ill-advised decision led to their arrest — when uniformed officers of the 10th Precinct observed the pair on a public sidewalk, opposite of 508 W. 28th St., at around 1:10am on Sun., May 5. Defendant #1, according to police, poured cocaine onto his cell phone — then, Defendant #2 snorted it. In the process of the arrest, it was discovered that Defendant #1 had a glass container of cocaine in his front left pants pocket.
Forgery: Rock on the C line
A 39-year-old man was taken into custody at around 12:25am on Sun., May 5 — when uniformed officers observed him walking from one subway car to another (on the northbound C train, near the W. 14th St. & 8th Ave. stop). The defendant was found to be in possession of a crack pipe, containing residue of “alleged crack cocaine.” He was charged with forgery, police noted, because a further search of his person revealed “one reduced fare MetroCard that was bent/altered.” The defendant had a previous record of transit-related arrests (the bent/altered card, in addition to allowing unlimited personal entry to the subway, is often used as a moneymaking scheme — whereby access to the subway is sold, at a reduced rate, to others. The scammer swipes the card, the person enters the system, the thief pockets his take and then proceeds to repeat the process).
Larceny: Three days in May
As regular attendees of the 10th Precinct’s Community Council meetings know, larceny crimes (both petty and grand) account for the overwhelming majority of complaints filed. Chelsea’s high density of clubs, restaurants, retail and recreational destinations — combined with a lack of savvy and/or inebriation on the part of the general public — often make the criminal’s job easy (or at least less difficult). Here’s a sampling of larceny complaints filed, from May 3-5:
- A bag left unattended on the sidewalk, while the victim helped a friend move a bike, was stolen. The contents included an Apple laptop ($1,200) and an iPhone ($600).
- While playing baseball in the park (southwest corner of 9th Ave. & 28th St.), a man’s personal belongings, left unattended, were stolen — including an iPhone valued at $650. There was no tracking app on the phone (which, if the phone were turned on, would allow the victim, and police, to pinpoint the phone’s whereabouts).
- Inside the SL (409 W. 14th St.), a woman put her purse on a table, then left it unattended, from 1-1:15am. When she returned, the bag (a grey Marc Jacobs brand worth $600) was gone—along with a $300 black iPhone 4S and Chase debit card. It was later discovered that the debit card had been used to make purchases at McDonald’s and a 7-Eleven, then take a taxi, then make a purchase at Hudson Bar & Books (636 Hudson St.).
- Inside of Chinese Fast Wok (230 7th Ave.), a woman left her purse on a chair, then exited. She quickly realized this, and returned — only to be told that a woman turned the purse in, to the counter person. A man told the counter person that the bag belonged to his wife, and he was there to retrieve it. He was given the purse, and got away with it (as well as its $1,770 in contents, which included $20 cash, a gold chain worth $1,000 and a $700 gold bracelet).
—Scott Stiffler
