Crime Watch
Barclay Bad Guy
At 11 AM on Saturday, January 25, a man from 25 to 30 years of age approached the middle teller in a bank on Barclay Street and passed the teller a note reading, "Have gun. Do not want to use it. Give me $10,000." The teller gave the robber $6,053 in cash before the robber fled eastbound on Murray Street. Video is available of the robbery.
SoHo No-No
Articles of clothing were stolen overnight from a SoHo boutique. Sometime early in the morning of Sunday, January 26, unknown perpetrators pried open the front door of a clothing boutique on Broome Street, entered the premises, and made off with seven women's bags, two fur coats, and four jackets, for a total haul of $5,000. No video is available of the break-in. Police said that the crime was part of a recent pattern of overnight store break-ins in SoHo that they have been tracking.
Green Dot Plot
A local café fell victim to the so-called Green Dot scam. At 6 PM on Thursday, January 9, a French café on Maiden Lane received the first of two phone calls from an unknown perpetrator claiming to be a representative of Con Edison. The caller told the café that the business owed the utility money and threatened to turn off their electric power unless the business purchased a Green Dot MoneyPak in the amount of $845 and read the authorization code of the card over the phone. In a subsequent call, the con artist asked the café to pay an additional $900 by the same method.
Hoard of the Rings
Someone made off with jewelry being delivered to a fashion photography shoot. On Thursday, January 16, a 35-year-old man entered a jeweler on Vestry Street to pick up valuable rings that were being rented for a fashion shoot. The jewelry was never delivered to the intended location. In all, thirteen rings went missing, valued at $33,000. No arrests have yet been made.
Watts Wrong
A tourist's property was stolen in a hotel. At 10:30 PM on Monday, January 27, a 44-year-old female tourist from Indiana was attending a meeting at a hotel on Watts street. She left her laptop, an iPad, and a wallet containing three credit cards and her driver's license on a couch in the hotel meeting room. When she returned thirty minutes later, her property was missing. The total amount of the items stolen came to $4,100.
Watch Out!
Someone stole a tourist's Rolex watch. On Tuesday, January 28, a male tourist from Brazil laid his watch down on the bathroom sink of his Thompson Street hotel room. When he got home later, he realized that his watch was missing. The Rolex was valued at $5,000.