Crime Watch

Purse Ploy Last Thursday afternoon, two ladies strolled into a high-end luxury store in the East 60s, seemingly to browse the exquisite hand bags, shoes and other leather goods. As one of the women chatted with a sales associate about a pair of shoes she was eyeing, her companion took a leather briefcase off the shelf and placed it behind a chair. Then the first shopper asked the sales associate to fetch a pair of shoes in her size from the back room. The manager came out to survey the scene, but the pair was able to distract her while one of them stuffed the briefcase under her dress. They waltzed out of the store, casually walking away with a $22,900 bag. The woman are both described as black, about 30 years old. Credit Card Fake-Out A crafty credit card forger made a crucial error in judgment when he tried out his phony plastic in full view of a police officer. Last Thursday, the perp went into an Upper East Side electronics store and attempted to purchase a $400 iPhone. At the register, where an officer could see what was happening, the man tried to pay with a credit card that failed to process numerous times. A manager came over and confirmed the suspicions of the cashier-the card was fake. The perp then tried to leave the store, but was stopped by the police officer. He denied trying to use a credit card at all, but when he was searched, the officer found seven more fake credit cards on him. The 22-year-old was arrested on the spot for attempted grand larceny. Sidewalk Bump and Steal A woman was walking north on Lexington Avenue toward 60th Street last Thursday around 4:30 p.m. when she felt the swell of the crowd around her. She felt a bump from behind but didn't attribute it to anything more than normal sidewalk jostle. When she walked into a nearby store, however, she noticed that her wallet was missing from her backpack. By the time she called her credit card companies to report the stolen cards, there had already been fraudulent activity on them. The victim lost several gift cards, a school ID and driver's license and a flash drive along with the wallet, and has no idea who might have taken it. Police warn locals to be especially vigilant on the streets during crowded summer months and always keep belongings close. Drugs on Wheels Sometimes, a reckless cyclist poses a bigger public danger than meets the eye. Last Tuesday at about 10 p.m., police received reports of man riding his bike on the sidewalk, endangering passersby and weaving erratically for a six-block stretch along Fifth Avenue. When police officers stopped the man to question him, he granted them permission to search his backpack. There, the officers discovered 10 decks of heroin, four hypodermic needles, three large plastic containers of marijuana, 32 acetaminophen pills, three 800mg Neurontin pills, six Clonidine pills, three Remeron pills, five Lorazepam pills and nine ibuprofen pills (possibly to treat the back pain he must have been suffering as a result of carting all those illegal drugs on his back). The 26-year-old biker was arrested for criminal possession of controlled substances, leaving the sidewalks of the Upper East Side a little safer and the streets with a little less heroin.