Daily Archives: December 15, 2017

Women accused of stealing laptops, shoes from unconscious man in Kips Bay apartment

Facebook photo of Maxine Hansen

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

A woman who was arrested last year in the Gramercy Park Hotel for broadcasting a raucous party over Facebook live is in trouble again after she was charged with stealing from a man in an apartment on East 28th Street after he was allegedly drugged.

Maxine Hansen, 26, along with 33-year-old Sonja Monness and 31-year-old Morgan Romano, allegedly stole a number of items from the man while the four were inside the apartment of the victim’s sister on November 17.

According to the district attorney’s office, Hansen allegedly handed the victim a drink, after which he lost consciousness. Police said that when he woke up, he noticed that an iPhone, three MacBooks, a Microsoft laptop, three credit cards, three Louis Vuitton bags and two pairs of shoes valued at $22,500 had been taken from the apartment without permission.

Hansen appeared in tabloids multiple times last November and December after her arrest related to the Facebook live video, which showed multiple BB guns in the Gramercy Park Hotel room. Police said they found heroin, methamphetamines and other drugs at the party, along with six BB guns, and three other people were arrested.

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Holiday gifts for $30 or less found at neighborhood stores

Boyar Gifts owner Tali Alexander demonstrates how what appears to be a bottle of wine opens to become a wine-opening kit. (Photos by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

With Hanukkah here and Christmas around the corner, time is running out to get holiday gifts, but fortunately there are plenty of options available at neighborhood stores. In fact, this year more than ever, we can’t recommend shopping locally enough. Read on for Town & Village’s ideas for gifts $30 or under, all found at local, brick-and-mortar stores.

  1. Forget candles and picture frames and find a quirky home gift at new boutique Boyar Gifts, 383B Second Avenue between East 22nd and 23rd Streets.

One recommendation from shop owner Tali Alexander is the store’s five-piece wine kit, $25, which at first glance appears to be a bottle of red wine, but is actually a set that includes a stopper, opener and other bar accessories. Alexander noted this has been especially popular as a housewarming gift. “Most of the time you buy a bottle of wine and then it’s like, ‘How do you open it?’” she said.

Other popular gift items are trinket trays for displaying jewelry or other small items, that read things like, “You the Mensch” and “Matzah matzah man,” $15, and one set of three trinket trays shaped like Russian nesting dolls, $25. A set of five decorative tins of Kusmi Parisian tea is $15 while mugs with various sayings, including, “Who are these kids and why do they keep calling me Grandma?” are $15.

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Soapbox: Lemme git da yo-yo – Recalling a fifth grade encounter with a bully

The following is an excerpt from Charles, Is Your Head on Your Shoulders?, a book by lifelong Stuyvesant Town resident Charles O’Connor on his experiences getting bullied as a kid, and how he hopes to help others avoid the same treatment. Names have been changed.

In the spring of fifth grade, 1971, Andrew and I were playing over at the school playground one Sunday afternoon. A boy, Eduardo, and his pal, Punky, stole my wristwatch. It was a Christmas present from my parents. They never let on, but they must have been terribly disappointed in me. I tried for several days to alert the principal to what had happened.  When I finally reached him, he said,

“Well, uh, now you come to me…”

This attitude indicated that there was very little, probably nothing, that he could do, or wanted to do, about the robbery. I was quite disappointed in that man.

A few weeks later, I was walking home with a friend, Ronny Williams, and I was swinging a yo-yo. Strangely, I could recall a warning from my mother:

“If you bring that yo-yo to school, I fear you will come home without it.”

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