Crime Watch

By Sean Creamer Break In, Steal, Repeat From Thursday, May 3 through Saturday, May 6, an unknown criminal broke into 18 different cars in the Upper East Side and stole personal effects ranging from loose papers to GPS devices. The robberies took place between East 94th and East 98th Streets on Lexington, Park, Madison, Third and Fifth avenues between 4 p.m. and midnight. In each case, the perpetrator would break the driver or passenger's side window to gain access. A number of the cars were luxury vehicles, most of them Mercedes-Benzes. Multiple iPods, iPads, phones, glasses and even a hard drive were stolen. No witnesses have been discovered so far to the crimes and the crook remains at large. Look at the Fine Print An Upper East Side man was duped on Craigslist over what he believed to be a good deal on concert ticket. The victim believed that he had found a rare ticket to a sold-out Drake concert on the website. On Wednesday, May 9, at about 3:30 p.m., the victim met with a black man who was sporting cowboy boots and called himself "Martin Lester." After the victim handed over $500 for the ticket, the two parted ways. The victim returned home to find several inconsistencies on the ticket. He later called Ticketmaster only to discover that the ticket was faked. Mother's Day Break-in Two Upper East Side women who share an apartment left for Mothers Day weekend only to discover that their home was ransacked while they were gone. The crime took place on East 83rd Street and was suspected to have occurred on Saturday, May 12, at about 6:30 p.m. One of the victims returned home from an excursion to find the front door only partially locked. A cursory investigation turned up empty beer bottles in the trash, both bedrooms combed through and an I.D. card belonging to a Brooklyn man. The victims were robbed of their MacBooks, a loss valued at $2,000, and one of the women lost a watch valued at $150, while the other was robbed of her camera valued at $350. There were no witnesses to the crime and the crook is still on the loose, despite the ID found at the scene. A Startling Awakening A late-night traveler took the ride of his life when he hailed a cab and fell asleep in the backseat of the car, only to be awakened by an angry cabbie. After a heated verbal argument over the fare, the victim was attacked by the seething cabbie. The victim was picked up at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 13, at East 6th Street and Sixth Avenue. After he nodded out in the backseat, the cabbie drove the napping rider to East 67th Street off First Avenue. The cabbie awakened the passenger, who then began to argue about the fare. The victim got out of the car and was followed for four blocks by the cabbie, who finally smashed a glass bottle over the victim's head. The victim received lacerations to the face and top of the head. The cabbie then returned to his car and fled. The car has been identified as one of the thousands of yellow medallion cabs that roam the streets and the driver was described as a black man in his 40s with a bald head. Cash Grab A popular chain store on Lexington Avenue in the Upper East Side was a victim of grand larceny by two of its employees. The two women were both managers at the store. Over a period of several months starting in March, the two continually made cash refunds for themselves, embezzling over $82,523 in cash. The company became suspicious when they saw that there were so many cash refunds but no customer receipts to go along with them. The two women stopped showing up to work and a fellow employee reported the crime on Saturday, May 12.