Crime Watch

Lending a helping hand On Monday, May 7, a man was strolling through the Upper East Side near Lexington Avenue and East 91st Street, when two men approached him. "What's the time, what's the time?" the first perp asked. As the victim walked away, the other man struck him on the head with a cane and wrestled an iPhone from him. A witness saw this occur, followed the men and identified them to police, who recovered the phone and charged both of the men with armed robbery. Smash-and-grab Jewelry store owners may want to consider getting wrought-iron bars instead of gleaming glass windows. On Saturday, May 5, the owner of a jewelry store returned to his place of business at about 10:30 in the morning to discover that not only had the gate to the shop been forcibly opened, but the window was shattered as well. So far, there has been no video footage made available or any witnesses to the crime. The thief made off with over $4,000 in silver rings, necklaces and bracelets. Playing Nice On Thursday, May 3, a man was walking down Third Avenue, minding his own business, when a seemingly random New Yorker approached him and punched the victim in the throat and took off down the street. The victim drove himself to LIJ hospital to deal with injuries from the punch. The person is now stable, but the white, about 35-year-old bruiser is still out on the streets. DOn't park your car here! A muscular, tanned man threatened a parking garage employee with a metal pipe on Sunday, May 6, over a car that may not have been his. The perp held up the business on East 61st Street by menacing employees and screaming that no one was leaving until he got his car back. The white sedan that the man claimed to be his remained in the garage as the employee could not confirm that the angry man was the owner. Instead of finding the proper papers, he utilized the "hit things with a metal pipe" action and threatened that he would beat the employee if he called the cops. The man left the scene, but the car is still unclaimed. Street Crossing Crime On the afternoon of Thursday, May 3, a woman was crossing the street at 59th Street. In an act of courtesy, a middleaged black man asked the woman if she needed help crossing the street. She accepted his help and gave him two dollars to help him get back to Brooklyn. This is when the do-gooder turned bad like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Feeling a tug on her purse, the victim noticed that the man was trying to seize her belongings while he helped her along. After calling him out on his dastardly ways, the man ran off with $200 and her wallet. So far, no arrests have been made. Das grand theft auto Parking a car in the city is always a hairy situation. Spots are hard to come by and finding one close to home is always a hassle. For one unlucky resident of the Upper East Side, a crook took advantage of unlocked doors and scarce parking to make his way into a home on 63rd Street. When the victim returned to his apartment, he found a crook standing in the foyer, knife in hand, as he demanded, "Give me the keys to the BMW." The victim did not own the aforementioned BMW, but another work of German engineering, a Volkswagen Jetta worth $20,000. The crook took the keys and $143 in cash and sped off down the road. Thus far, no arrests have been made.