Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

In His Cups and Out of LuckAn man had more than a hangover to recover from recently. Early on Halloween morning, a 51-year-old man told police he was assaulted and robbed of his belongings by several people at Broadway and West 105th Street. Police said the man was highly intoxicated at the time of the assault, and after searching the area with police following the incident, he got out of the police car and said he was leaving. A sergeant from the 24th precinct tried to convince the victim not to go, but the man replied, “I’m going to find the muggers.” While the sergeant and detectives returned to the scene of the crime, they spotted the victim and finally got him to return to the precinct. He showed no signs of visible physical injury. He told police that his red Raleigh bike, a backpack, a silver Mac G4 laptop and a tennis racket were all taken.

Bad News Comes in ThreesThree area residents had their bank accounts depleted by perpetrators cashing fraudulent checks. In the first incident, a West 104th Street resident told police she was looking at her online account on Oct. 31 when she saw that four fake checks in the amount of $12,500 had been sent by someone unknown to her. She immediately froze her account. She also told police that she had sent out a personal check to pay her rent around the beginning of October that had never reached its destination.

In the second incident, a West 80th Street resident told police her bank had notified her on Nov. 2 that her account was overdrawn. She went to her local Chase Bank branch and was told that an unknown person had cashed three checks under her name for a total of $9,902.05. The perpetrator had used her personal information to cash the checks.

In a third incident, also on Nov. 2, a West 103rd Street resident told police he was checking his bank accounts when he saw that five checks had been posted, totaling $4,302. When he received photocopies of the posted checks, he determined that the checks were not his and had been written by someone else. The fraudulent checks were made out to a Washington, D.C., resident and deposited into a Fidelity account. The victim told police he had given no one permission to write checks in his name.

Dad’s CadsYou would do well to suspect a visitor who asks if you have surveillance cameras in your home. Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, the father of a 424 West 110th St. resident had a male friend over at their apartment when they were joined by the friend’s girlfriend. The victim said her dad told her he had noticed his friend’s girlfriend repeatedly get up to use the bathroom. The father was also asked by his friend if there were any cameras in the apartment, but he thought nothing of it. On Nov. 1, the victim went to her jewelry box and noticed items missing. She told police that no one else had been in the apartment beside her father’s friends. The victim also said that her father’s male friend works part-time at a local pizzeria. The items stolen included three necklaces, a white gold ring, and a gold bow. The victim put the value of the missing items at $2,510.