Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Card Cad

Police remind the public that to avoid arrest, you should make credit card purchases using your own credit card. Shortly before noon on April 5, a 29-year-old man, later identified as Enrique Gomez, attempted to make a charge at the Pick A Bagel shop at 251 Vesey St. using a credit card that was not his. It was later determined Gomez had already made six other purchases with stolen credit cards. When police arrested Gomez the next day he was found with two stolen credit cards and one stolen debit card. He was charged with grand larceny.

New York’s DumbestA motorist was arrested after hitting one of New York’s Bravest with his car. Shortly after noon on April 7, a 31-year-old man driving up the wrong lane on Broad Street at Bridge Street. An FDNY officer stopped the driver’s car and asked for his ID. The driver, later identified as Jeffrey Malek, said to the fireman, “F--- you; you’re not a cop!” He tried to drive away but hit the fireman with his car. The officer sustained minor injuries to his right knee and refused medical assistance at the scene. Malek was subsequently arrested and charged with assault on a peace officer.

SUBWAY CONDUCTOR HIT BY BOTTLEThis was quite the week for attacks on public service workers. At 4:30 a.m. on April 11, a 58-year-old female conductor on a northbound 2 train en route from Brooklyn to Bronx was hit by a thrown glass bottle while the train was stopped at the Houston Street station. The bottle hit her in the middle of her forehead, cutting her slightly. Her assailant, identified only as a woman, fled the station. Although conscious and alert, the conductor was taken to Montefiore Hospital for further care.

Midlife CrisisAn exploding dye pack did not deter a bank robber. At 1:50 p.m. April 8, a man in his 50s with a gray goatee entered the Santander bank at 108 Hudson St., went to teller window number 3, placed a black plastic bag on the teller’s ledge, and told the teller, “This is a bank robbery. Do what I’m telling you to do, or I will hurt you.” He demanded bills in $50 and $100 denominations and then left the scene heading northbound on Hudson. A dye pack cached with the stolen loot, $530, burst in front of 112 Hudson St. An investigation is ongoing.

Two-Wheel StealIt would not be a Crime Watch column in spring without a bicycle theft report. At 3:30 p.m. on March 26, a 39-year-old man secured his bike to a bike rack outside 180 Varick St. before going to work inside the building. When he returned to his bike a few hours later, it was gone. The stolen two-wheeler was a black-with-white-lettering Cannondale CAAD10 3 with Gatorskin tires and worth about $1,820.