Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Mannequin ManiaWhat’s easier than stealing candy from a baby? Stealing handbags from a mannequin! At 1:45 p.m. on Dec. 8, a man said to be in his late teens entered the Versus Versace store at 75 Greene St. and removed two handbags from a mannequin before leaving the location and fleeing northbound on Greene. Police searched the area but couldn’t locate the thief or the missing merchandise. The stolen items were two bags with a total value of $1,100.

Ulysses MissesApparently a bar employee wasn’t making enough in tips. Sometime between 10 a.m. on December 9 and 4 p.m. on Dec. 10, an unknown person entered the manager’s office in the Ulysses’ Folk House tavern at 95 Pearl St. and removed a MacBook Pro valued at $2,000. Only employees had access to that office. A search of the premises failed to turn up the missing computer, and tracking software last showed the machine’s whereabouts as Throop Avenue in Brooklyn later that day.

DrugStore ScoreIt seems that no Crime Watch column is complete without a Duane Reade shoplifting story, and here it is. At about 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 17, a man removed razors, shampoos and cosmetics worth a retail value of $2,513 from shelves in the Duane Reade at 250 Broadway. He placed the items in a large shopping bag as well as inside his jacket before leaving the store and fleeing into the Park Place train station, police said.

Sidewalk CakewalkAt 1 p.m. on Dec. 20, workers renovating a space inside 65 Nassau Street left tools unattended on the sidewalk outside the location because space inside the building was tight. Their equipment, including drills, a laser level and other miscellaneous tools worth about $1,645, were gone.

By Hook or by CrookFortunately, a young woman was not on the hook for unauthorized charges after leaving her purse on a hook. At 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 22, a 40-year-old woman was sitting in the Tribeca Tavern at 247 West Broadway after having hung her purse next to her on a hook. She received a fraud alert from American Express and discovered that someone had taken her wallet out of her purse and used her card. The items stolen included a brown Louis Vuitton wallet, valued at $650, several credit cards, a MetroCard worth $60, a Beniversal prepaid MasterCard worth $340, and a Vince gift card worth $15.