Crime Blotter
THOSE FLUKES'LL KILL YA Last week, Police Chief Ray Kelly called the 11 murders that occurred in the city over the previous weekend a "fluke." After all, statistics show that New York's crime rate has fallen to its lowest level since the beginnings of recorded history.
That's comforting to hear. All those homicides were just kind of an accident. Well, here are a few other flukes from this past week.
A fire in a Boerum Hill housing complex in the wee hours of July 9 was caused by more than just another tipped candle. It seems someone doused a man in gasoline and set him on fire. The human torch died, and the ensuing blaze sent four others to the hospital. No arrests have been made.
A disagreement between two roommates in the Bronx turned nasty Sunday night. Leo Banks, 56, was trying to oust his 35-year-old roommate after the younger man began tossing Banks' plants out the window. In the struggle, Banks got a cut lip, and retaliated by stabbing his roomie in the chest with an ice pick.
Charges against Banks are pending, and his former roommate was in critical condition. Neighbors told police that the apartment was a crack den, which helps explain things.
Abdul Naeem, 48, a homeless man in Cobble Hill, didn't want to leave his calculator, clock and all those nuts and bolts just lying around. So he put them all in a bag and hung it around his neck. Then he knelt down outside an Indian restaurant. It wasn't long before an eight-square-block area had been evacuated. Later, members of the ESU, the bomb squad and the Joint Terrorism Task Force let Naeem (who has mental problems) know that they didn't think it was funny at all.
Two 30-year-old women who may have been lovers in the midst of an ugly break-up or "just friends studying together" got into one hellacious catfight in a high-rise at 89th and 3rd on Tuesday afternoon. The biting, scratching and howling from inside the 12th-floor apartment alerted neighbors, who contacted security. When police arrived, one of the women, Otilla Cordero, made a run for the balcony and beyond.
She bounced off enough during her plunge to end up with only a fractured skull, chin and legwhich probably pissed her off even more.
On Wednesday night, the 69-year-old token clerk at the 23rd St. 1/9 station told the man swiping people through the turnstiles to stop. When he didn't, the clerk told straphangers to stop patronizing the man's services. When they did, the swiper approached the booth and poured the contents of his water bottle through the coin slot before setting it ablaze. The booth's fire extinguishers doused the flames, and the clerk escaped unharmed. So did the swiper.
Finally, we're pleased to report that our favorite robbers struck again last week. Those intrepid boys of the ATM gang struck for the 28th time, breaking into a bagel shop in Chelsea and making off with a cash machine containing an estimated $10,000.
Police still have no solid leads.