Crime Watch: Failed Phone Theft; Missing Bag; Co-Worker Fights; Candy Store Burglary; Fake Employee

Compiled by Paul Bisceglio FAILED PHONE THEFT A 14-year-old boy attempted to steal a woman's phone on Wednesday, Dec. 12, but was foiled by a good Samaritan. The 33-year-old woman stopped along East 83rd Street to make a call at around 3:30 p.m. When she finished, the teen ran up and grabbed the phone from her hand and fled. The woman chased after him, yelling to attract the attention of bystanders. The teen pulled away, but when the woman reached Lexington Avenue, a man approached her with the phone, an iPhone 5, and said that he had gotten it from the thief. The woman described the teen to a nearby police officer and, after a quick search, officers apprehended the boy, who was arrested for grand larceny. UNATTENDED BAG GOES MISSING A woman lost her handbag in a bar on Sunday, Dec. 23, when she left it unattended. The 48-year-old had been enjoying a night with a friend in a bar on First Avenue until she realized around 1 a.m. that the bag had vanished. She did not see anyone take it, so she and the bar's workers searched around the room for it, but found nothing. She lost two credit cards, an iPhone 4s, another cellphone and $300 cash. The thief remains unidentified and at large. CO-WORKER BEEF A young woman was recently assaulted by a former co-worker outside a Third Avenue confectionery. The woman, an 18-year-old Bronx resident, was leaving work shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, when her 24-year-old female ex-co-worker approached her and the two got into an argument. Anger turned into blows when the co-worker started repeatedly punching the teen in the head, leaving her injured as she fled scene. The attacker remains at large and is wanted for assault. ANOTHER CO-WORKER PUNCH-UP Two co-workers got into a fight on East 86th Street on Monday, Dec. 24, that left one of the men bleeding. At about 9:30 p.m., the two began arguing on the street, and the older co-worker, a 33-year-old, decided to end the argument by punching the younger worker in the face several times, which gave him a bloody nose. The attacker fled the scene and is wanted for assault. CANDY STORE BURGLARY A candy store on Madison Avenue was robbed overnight on Friday, Dec. 21. A worker showed up at the store the following morning and found that $434 had been stolen from cash registers and nearly $3,000 was missing from the store's safe. According to the worker, the registers, the safe and the store's front door were locked when she arrived, and there were no signs of forced entry. No surveillance cameras were on the premises to aid the identification of the robber(s). FAKE BUILDING EMPLOYEE A thief-in-disguise managed to swipe an iPad from a medical office on Park Avenue by pretending to be a building employee. The unidentified robber, described as 5'2" and around 40 years old, walked into the office on Friday, Dec. 21, and asked a young worker to turn off the office's water so that the plumbing could be checked. The worker complied, then the fake employee asked her to clean under the office's sink so that its pipes could be viewed. After she completed that task, the thief left the office, and the worker returned to her desk to find that her $500 iPad was missing. The worker contacted the building management and learned that no one had been given permission to check the office's plumbing. No other items were reported stolen, and the impostor remains at large.