Stabbed in argument
Police responded to a call in front of 33 Gold St. around 3:30 a.m. Fri., May 11, where they found a woman with bloodstained clothes sobbing over a man who had been stabbed in the chest. The woman, Yekatrina Pupepa, 22, was charged with attempted murder of her boyfriend, Alec Katsnelson, 22, during an argument in the Gold St. apartment where they had been living since November. Katsnelson was taken to Bellevue in stable condition.
Pupepa, an immigrant from Latvia, first told police the victim grabbed a knife from her hand and stabbed himself by accident. After surgery, the victim told police that Pupepa came at him with two knives and stabbed him with one of them. She then helped him down to the street where he collapsed. The couple fought frequently and at one point Katsnelson was arrested and spent a weekend in jail. In addition to attempted murder, Pupepa was charged with assault and criminal weapon possession.
Evil spirit scams
Fifth Precinct detectives are looking for two or three women who have been victimizing elderly Asian women in Chinatown by offering to remove evil spirits and bad luck from their jewelry and money and then stealing it from them.
Two scammers, described only as Asian women, approached their latest victim, 62, at Doyers St. and Bowery at noon on April 30 and told her she had an evil spirit and needed her jewelry to be blessed. They approached an 85-year-old victim at 9 a.m. April 25 in front of 193 Eldridge St. and fled with her jewelry, which they said they would bless. At 11 a.m. on April 18, they fled with the jewelry that they offered to bless for a 63-year-old victim at an unidentified Chinatown location.
Three suspects, described as Asian women in their 40s, also told an 81-year-old victim at 9:15 a.m. on April 4 that they needed her property to remove bad luck from it and at 9:30 a.m. on March 29 they asked another victim, whose age was not disclosed, for her property to remove evil spirits.
Anyone with information on the suspects should phone the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.comon by texting 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577. All tips are confidential.
D.A. dismisses grope charges
The Manhattan District Attorney’s offices on Monday dismissed charges against Karl Vanderwoude, arrested April 14 and charged with groping four women in Lower Manhattan, the Village and the Upper East Side over the previous two months. “The defendant is not the person who committed these acts,” Assistant District Attorney Kevin Rooney told Judge Erica Edwards.
Investigators for the D.A. discovered that Vanderwoude had valid alibis for when the incidents occurred at the Chambers St. subway station on March 30, at King and Varick Sts. on Feb. 26, on Second Ave. near E. 67th St. on Feb. 27 and on E. 62nd St. near Park Ave. on Feb. 26. Witnesses misidentified Vanderwoude in a line-up.
A Dutch native who works for a financial firm, Vanderwoude conducts Bible study in his Park Slope apartment. “I still love New York,” Vanderwoude told reporters.
Rape and pot
Ramon Fernandez, 43, was charged with getting a 14-year-old girl drunk around 8:30 p.m. Sat., April 26 and sexually attacking her in the Baruch Houses building where he lives, police said. The suspect was arrested a few hours later in his apartment where he was in possession of an undisclosed quantity of marijuana.
Seek Chinatown burglar
Police are looking for a suspect who stole two laptops, an iPad and an iPhone on March 30 from an office on the fifth floor of 59 E. Broadway. The suspect, whose image was caught on surveillance tape, also entered an office on the sixth floor of 98 E. Broadway at 11:50 p.m. March 28 but fled empty-handed when an alarm went off.
The same suspect entered a Baxter St. building on the afternoon of April 19, made his way to a fifth-floor apartment and fled with a 32-inch flat screen television through the lobby of the building and out the front door. He was described as being in his late 20s with short black hair, 5’9” and 195 pounds, last seen wearing a white Yankee jersey, blue jeans and a black backpack with orange stripes.
Garage robber
A man walked into the Empire Parking Garage at 90 Laight St. at 3:15 p.m. Sun., May 6, held a knife to the attendant, stole an undisclosed sum of cash and drove off with it in a car that he stole from the garage, police said.
Shoplifter violence
An employee of the Real Deal discount store, 59 John St., saw a suspect stuffing 15 packages of soap in a bag around 3 p.m. Sun., May 13 and tried to stop the suspect when he left the store without paying. The suspect sprayed a burning liquid in the employee’s eyes, dropped the bag and fled, police said. The employee returned the bag to the store and then went to Downtown Hospital to be treated.
Standing on line
A Great Neck, LI, man, 55, told police he was standing on line for coffee in Starbucks at 10 Hanover Sq. around 8:30 a.m. Tues., May 8 when he checked the laptop bag he was carrying and discovered that the computer had been stolen from it. The victim was sure he was not bumped or jostled at the time.
— Albert Amateau
