Suspected Occupy rapist arrested
A homeless man sought by police for several days after he allegedly raped a woman near the South Street Seaport, turned himself in on Fri., Sept. 14.
Jackie Barcliff, 44, was placed into custody at Manhattan Criminal Court, because he had seen his photo printed in newspapers throughout the city, police said.
He was arrested for sexually assaulting a 56-year-old woman at Pier 15 and subsequently pushing her off a 20-foot-high balcony — leaving her with a broken pelvis and other serious injuries — on Mon., Sept. 10.
While investigating the crime, police also linked Barcliff to the Aug. 12 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Midtown, and have charged him with both crimes, the Daily News reported.
Both Barcliff and the woman he allegedly raped near the Seaport have ties to Occupy Wall Street. The Daily News also reported that he had been arrested last December, during the O.W.S. protests, for assault and resisting arrest.
D.W.I. harbor boater charged
Richard Aquilone, 43, pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and operating a vessel while under the influence on Thurs., Sept. 13 — more than two years after he crashed his boat into a smaller vessel in New York Harbor, killing its operator.
Aquilone, who is from Jersey City, blamed a sightseeing boat for cutting him off and causing the July 2010 accident, which crushed a 29-year-old man whose wedding was weeks away.
Prosecutors said that Aquilone’s blood-alcohol level was .06 immediately after the boat crash, the New York Post reported, which placed him below the legal limit of .08 but was high enough to back up the charge of operating a vessel while under the influence.
Along with claiming his innocence, Aquilone is suing Circle Line, the company that owns the sightseeing boat that he alleges caused the crash.
Subway phone snatcher
Police are searching for a teenage thief who snatched a woman’s cell phone at a Chambers Street subway stop early on Sat., Sept. 8, and fled the scene alongside a group of adoring girls.
The perp — described as a 16-year-old dark-skinned Hispanic male, approximately 5’5’’ and 115 pounds — boarded a southbound 2 train at the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square subway station at around 12:30 a.m., with five similarly aged girls in tow, according to the police report. He spotted a 39-year-old woman checking her iPhone, and when the train reached the Chambers Street station, he plucked the phone out her hand and fled with his posse.
The unhappy subway rider tried tracking her stolen phone with the “Find my iPhone” app at the First Precinct, but the digital search turned up no results.
Lunchtime larceny
A 58-year-old woman was left with a bad taste in her mouth after finishing her lunch at a T.G.I. Friday’s, at 47 Broadway, on Fri., Sept. 7 once realizing that her purse had been picked through.
As she prepared to pay the check and leave the restaurant at around 12:30 p.m., the woman realized that her debit card and $150 in cash were missing from the purse, which she had left hanging from the back of her chair, police said. She avoided further trouble by canceling the card before it could be used.
The restaurant’s surveillance tapes, released to police shortly after the crime was reported, showed a black woman, approximately 5’2’’ and 160 pounds, rummaging through the victim’s handbag and making off with the items. The suspect was accompanied by two unknown males, according to the report.
Gloved jewelry bandit
Police are on the hunt for a glove-clad man who stole nearly $6,000 worth of gold rings from a West Broadway jewelry store on Thurs., Sept. 6.
A 25-year-old employee of Pandora, at 412 West Broadway, told police that she had been showing the suspect several items from behind the counter at around 3 p.m., when she walked away for a few minutes to look up a specific ring size on the store’s computer. Upon her return, she realized that the man — who she had previously noticed was wearing blue gloves — vanished from the store with a jewelry cone that held three gold, diamond-studded rings, each valued at around $2,000.
The employee described the bandit as dark-skinned Hispanic, and approximately 5’9’’ and 250 pounds.
Don’t leave that purse unattended
An unknown thief made off with a woman’s unattended purse while she was in an Old Navy changing room on Sat., Sept. 8, police said.
The 22-year-old woman had left her handbag outside a fitting room, by a clothing rack, while trying on clothes in the 503 Broadway store at around 5 p.m. When she returned to pick up the purse several minutes later, it was gone, along with all of the possessions stowed inside.
The theft left the woman — who is originally from Florida and studies at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights — without her leather wallet, her driver’s license and school identification card, her debit card, her MetroCard, her checkbook and her cell phone.
— Sam Spokony
