Category Archives: Crime

Man gropes woman in Stuyvesant Town elevator

By Sabina Mollot

Cops are looking for a man who groped a 30-year-old woman inside her building in Stuyvesant Town on Tuesday.

Police said that around 5:40 p.m., the suspect followed the victim inside her building, which is located in the vicinity of East 14th Street and the 14th Street Loop. He then followed her into an elevator and got out on the second floor, but as the elevator door was about to close he got back in and pressed the fifth floor button. When the elevator reached the fourth floor, and the victim was getting out, the man grabbed her buttocks under her skirt.

The victim then smacked the man and screamed, but according to cops, the suspect remained in the elevator for a time with the doors closed. He then fled the building in an unknown direction.

Police also believe the suspect had followed the victim as she was walking home from the subway station on 14th Street and First Avenue.

The suspect is described as Asian with a light complexion, approximately 20-27 years of age, 5’4″, 150 lbs., brown eyes, black hair, last seen wearing a black baseball hat, black sneakers, white shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782)

The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at http://www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

Man slashed on the back outside Union Square subway

June22 slashing

Slashing suspect

By Sabina Mollot

Police are looking for a man who slashed a stranger on his back near the Union Square subway station on Saturday.

According to police, at 11:40 a.m., the victim, a 29-year-old man left the station with his fiancée when the other man snuck up behind him and slashed him with an unknown object. The victim chased his attacker back into the subway but the suspect managed to get away by darting onto a northbound 6 train.

Prior to the incident, the suspect was seen at the Myrtle/Wyckoff subway station, cursing at random passengers, cops said.

The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment to his injury, which wasn’t serious.

The suspect is described as Hispanic with a light complexion, approximately 35-40 years of age, and was last seen wearing a camouflage shirt and dark sunglasses.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

The public can also submit their tips by logging onto www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

 

 

Man pleads guilty to slashings on East Side

By Sabina Mollot

On Tuesday, a man who slashed two people in unprovoked attacks, including one outside Bellevue Hospital, pled guilty to assault on Tuesday.
In exchange for doing so he is expected to be sentenced to 14 years in jail on July 11. Prosecutors had recommended 18 years.

The two slashing incidents were unrelated with the first one happening on October, 2015. Francis Salud, 29, pulled a knife on a 30-year-old acquaintance in the garden behind Bellevue before slashing the man’s arm and shoulder. The victim, who worked at the hospital, needed more than 70 stitches.

On January 16, 2016, Salud approached a stranger walking on East 6th and slashed the 30-year-old victim across his back and his face. The wounds caused the man extensive nerve damage.

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Teen arrested for selling stolen defibrillators from Washington Irving building

Washington Irving High School, pictured last April (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police arrested 18-year-old Anthony Johnson last Tuesday for selling defibrillators stolen from the Washington Irving High School campus at 40 Irving Place last May.

Police said that an employee noticed two automated external defibrillators (AEDs) were missing from the school’s eighth floor and basement on May 15.

Johnson allegedly admitted stealing the two AEDs from the school before that date and selling them online. It was unclear how Johnson reportedly gained access to the basement of the building where the AEDs were stored.

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Man arrested for Section 8 scam

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police arrested 33-year-old Carlos Angulo Delgado for petit larceny last Monday at 7 p.m. inside the 13th Precinct. Police said that Delgado told the victim that she would be placed at the top of an apartment waiting list in exchange for cash.

Police said that a victim flagged an officer down in the street because Delgado allegedly claimed to be a New York City employee who promised the victim that he would help her obtain Section 8 housing. The victim told police that she paid Delgado $1,000 for his services on May 28 at 570 West 207th Street and refused to pay any more because Delgado did not have employee identification on him. Police said that they recovered a binder from Delgado containing Section 8 paperwork. According to the DA’s office, the binder had records for at least 10 other individuals relating to Section 8 housing, in which victims allegedly gave Delgado cash in exchange for priority treatment for Section 8 housing. The DA’s office said that incidents dated back to September 2016.

No further information was available about where the Section 8 housing Delgado allegedly offered was.

Cops looking for man who duped elderly woman out of $2G for ‘bail’

Scam suspect

By Sabina Mollot

Police are looking for a man who duped an elderly Peter Cooper Village resident out of $2,000, claiming it was bail she’d need to pay to free a friend who was arrested.

The man called the victim, a 93-year-old woman, at home on Friday, May 26 to say that a friend of hers was arrested and at Rikers Island. He then informed her the bail would cost her $6,500. When the victim said she only had $2,000, the scammer then arrived at her home to collect the cash. Afterwards, the victim got suspicious and called her friend, who, it turned out, had not been arrested.

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Kips Bay man faces child porn charges

June1 Jacob Schwartz

Jacob Schwartz (Photo via Facebook)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

New York City employee and Democratic activist Jacob Schwartz, 29, was arrested on child pornography charges inside the 13th Precinct last Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

According to the district attorney’s office, the Kips Bay resident has been under investigation since last November.

Police said that Schwartz gave officers his signed consent to search his laptop on March 29 inside his Third Avenue apartment.

When police searched the computer, they found that he had more than 3,000 images and 89 videos of nude girls as young as six months through age 16 engaging in “sexual conduct” with men, including sexual intercourse and oral sex.

CBS New York reported last Friday that Schwartz had been working in the Department of Design and Construction for the last two years and was the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats.

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Man arrested for bank robberies in Kips Bay, Upper East Side

Robbery suspect

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police arrested 50-year-old Jon Waulters on Wednesday in connection with seven bank robberies throughout the city, including one in Kips Bay.

Waulters allegedly got away with cash after passing a demand note to a teller inside a Kips Bay Chase Bank at 450 Third Avenue between East 31st and 32nd Streets on March 13 around 1:10 p.m.

Police said that Waulters’ spree began on March 9 on the Upper East Side and he allegedly robbed another bank on the Upper East Side on May 11.

Waulters allegedly conducted two bank robberies on the Upper East Side about 15 minutes apart last Wednesday, reportedly pointing a gun at a teller while passing a demand note inside the HSBC at 1165 Third Avenue at East 68th Street and getting away with cash from a Capital One at 1295 Second Avenue, also at East 68th, at 4:17 p.m. He fled south on Second Avenue but was arrested about a half an hour later at 4:49 p.m.

Waulters was charged with seven counts of robbery.

Police Watch: Officer assaulted in Kips Bay, Bike ‘thief’ busted for stolen credit cards

MAN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING OFFICER IN KIPS BAY
Police arrested 39-year-old Kevin Legenza after he allegedly punched a cop in front of 124 East 28th Street last Friday at 3:13 a.m.
Police said that Legenza was sitting down on the hood of an operating vehicle in front of the location and refused to move. Police officers at the scene asked him to move several times and he allegedly refused. Police said that they told him he was blocking traffic and would be issued a summons if he didn’t move. Legenza then allegedly tried to stop the officer from doing this by pushing him and attempting to walk away. Police said that they attempted to arrest the suspect but he allegedly flailed his arms and actively resisted being restrained, so officers brought him to the ground. This is when Legenza allegedly fell on top of one of the officers and also punched the officer in the face multiple times.
An attorney for Legenza did not respond to a request for comment.

BIKE ‘THIEF’ BUSTED FOR STOLEN CREDIT CARDS
Police arrested 26-year-old Benjamin Marcial for petit larceny and possession of stolen property last Friday at 2:11 p.m. at the corner of East 20th Street and the FDR Drive. Police said that Marcial took a bicycle from the sidewalk without permission and allegedly attempted to put the stolen bike in a taxi to flee the scene.
While Marcial was in custody after being arrested for stealing the bike, police said that he was found to be in possession of stolen credit cards. Police said that the credit cards had been swiped from a Blink Fitness location in the 9th precinct.

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Police Watch: Transgender woman killed, Man busted for bank robbery

TRANSGENDER WOMAN KILLED ON SEVENTH AVENUE
Police said that 59-year-old transgender woman Brenda Bostick was found unconscious in front of 343 Seventh Avenue on April 25 at 10:30 p.m. Police reported that Bostick was transported to Bellevue Hospital and died from her injuries last Thursday. Bostick was a resident of the BRC Shelter on West 25th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues and had suffered head trauma.
Her death has been ruled a homicide and the investigation is ongoing.

MAN ARRESTED FOR CHASE BANK ROBBERY
Police arrested 52-year-old Charles Queen for robbery last Friday at 10:19 a.m. inside the Chase Bank at 501 Second Avenue at East 28th Street. According to the district attorney’s office, Queen passed a teller in the bank that read, “Don’t make a sound at all. This is a bank robbery. Need money now!!! Nobody will get hurt. Don’t make a sound.” The teller secretly alerted police and Queen was arrested.

WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER CAR FLIPPED ONTO SIDE
Police arrested 24-year-old Corey Kaminski for allegedly drunk driving after her car flipped on its side at the corner of East 24th Street and Lexington Avenue last Saturday at 4:32 a.m. Police said they were responding to a call about an accident when they found a car on its side with the driver still in the vehicle. Police said that Kaminski, who had been driving the car, had watery eyes, a flushed face and an odor of alcohol on her breath, but she told police that she only had a beer. Kaminski was taken to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for her injuries.

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Police looking for men behind two attempted bank robberies

May11 Chase robber number two

Kips Bay Chase Bank attempted robbery suspect

Police are looking for two men who attempted to rob local Chase Banks in separate incidents.

On Tuesday at around 5:30 p.m., a man strolled into a bank at 501 Second Avenue and 28th Street, approached a teller and passed a note demanding money. The teller didn’t comply, though, and the suspect fled the scene. He was last seen walking southbound on Second Avenue.

The would-be robber of the Kips Bay bank is described as being white, 35-40 years old, approximately 5’5″ tall, with a slim build. Police also said he had a light complexion with blisters around his mouth and a tattoo on his neck. At the time of the incident he was wearing blue jeans, a beige baseball cap, a gray sweatshirt and a black hooded jacket.

Police are also looking for a man who tried to rob a Chase Bank in NoMad on Friday, but left emptyhanded.

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Mailman arrested for assault on Saturday

Columbia Care Medical Marijuana Dispensary on Monday afternoon (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police arrested a mailman for assault in the East Village on Saturday at 3 p.m. after he kicked a door at the East 14th marijuana dispensary and allegedly hit an officer when police tracked him down nearby.

Thirty-year-old Daniel Jean was attempting to deliver mail to the Columbia Care Medical Marijuana Dispensary at 212 East 14th Street around 2 p.m., Gothamist reported on Sunday. Jean allegedly got into an argument with a security guard, who told him he wasn’t allowed in the building.

Police said that Jean and the guard got into an argument and the guard told him he could give her the mail but he allegedly refused. He left but returned shortly after and gave the mail to someone else, then left the dispensary again. He allegedly returned to the building a third time and kicked a door, prompting the security guard to call the police. The district attorney’s office said that the damage to the door and lock prevented the door from being able to open.

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Mom, son tried to get ST apt. with fake ID, cops say

Stuyvesant Town leasing office (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police busted a woman and her son for attempting to lease an apartment in Peter Cooper Village and in Murray Hill with an allegedly stolen identity last Tuesday. Christine Thompson, 48, and 19-year-old Christopher Vlado were arrested inside the Stuyvesant Town leasing office at 252 First Avenue after the pair went through the application process for apartments at 370 First Avenue in Peter Cooper and at 12 East 37th Street in April.

Thompson and Vlado allegedly toured the apartment in Peter Cooper Village on April 14.

The DA’s office said that Thompson went into the Stuy Town leasing office on April 22 and applied for the Peter Cooper apartment, allegedly presenting herself as the victim whose ID was being used. She reportedly signed the application that day and returned to the leasing office last Tuesday to sign the lease agreement. According to the DA’s office, Vlado sat with Thompson while she went through the application and pointed out where she needed to sign the victim’s name. She allegedly signed the victim’s name 33 times on the lease agreement and provided management with 12 money orders, each with the victim’s name in the signature.

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Cops make string of K2 arrests on 14th St.

Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Police have noticed an increase in the use of K2 around West 14th Street and Sixth Avenue and believe that smokers of the drug are coming into the city on the PATH train, which has a stop at the intersection.

According to the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney, there were at least 10 people arrested for K2, also known as synthetic marijuana, in the last week, and charged with violating health codes.

Timoney discussed the arrests at a 13th Precinct Community Council meeting held on Tuesday, noting that two arrests were made at the Gramercy precinct earlier in the day.

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Stuy Town man robbed by guests

June23 sign

Stuyvesant Town (photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

A 24-year-old Stuyvesant Town resident was robbed in his building by a group of seven people he had invited back to his apartment last Saturday at 4:20 a.m.

Police said that the victim met the men in a bar where he had been drinking earlier that night and he invited them back to his apartment in Stuy Town at East 20th and Avenue C. He told police that when he got into the elevator, the men started pulling up their hoods and covering their faces. When they got out of the elevator, they reportedly attacked the victim, forcing him to the ground and removing his wallet before fleeing the building. The victim reported the incident at 4:55 a.m. and no arrests were made at the time of the crime. Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney said at the 13th precinct community council’s meeting this past Tuesday that police were still looking for the suspects.

Police would not release the exact building where the robbery occurred to protect the victim.

Management did not return a request for comment on the incident by Town & Village’s press time.

Timoney said previously that locally thefts in homes were also up as a result of people inviting dates over, only to wake up and realize they’d been stolen from.

UPDATE: StuyTown Property Services responded to the incident on Thursday.

“StuyTown Property Services is aware of the incident and is assisting the NYPD with their investigation,” community affairs manager Marynia Kruk said.