Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

No ExquiseThe warm months have always been the time for sunglasses, but now they seem to be the time for sunglass-shoplifting as well. At 2:09 p.m. on June 15, a couple in their 40s entered the Optyx boutique at 2384 Broadway and peered into the eyeglass displays. A store employee later told police that she briefly went into the back room and when she returned, a display case had been opened and left ajar, and the couple had quit the premises. Nearly $4,000 worth of sunglasses, by Dior Exquise, Thom Browne and Dita, were reported missing.

Nanny No-NoA scam artist preyed on a young job seeker. At 9 p.m. on June 13, a 23-year-old woman living on West 106th Street registered at the website care.com seeking employment as a nanny. She was subsequently contacted by an unknown person stating that he saw her information online and was interested in hiring her. As an act of supposed good faith, he sent her advance payment in the form of a check for $2,500. The young woman deposited the check in her account, but the following day was contacted by the employer, saying he needed $2,100 from the check to pay for a wheelchair for his child. The young nanny dutifully withdrew $2,100 from her account and wired him the money via Wells Fargo. The check he had sent her turned out to be bogus, and she was out $2,100.

Painter Perpetrator?Commencing at 9 a.m. on March 31, two withdrawals, in the amounts of $4,575 and $4,500, were made from the account of an 80-year-old woman living on Riverside Drive. She subsequently closed her bank account, but on June 8 at 11 a.m., she found that another withdrawal of $4,500 had been attempted against her new account. That transaction did not go through, and she closed the new account. The victim told police that she had hired a painter in January to do work on her apartment for a few days, during which she left the painter and his assistant alone at times. She said that only she and building staff had keys to her apartment. When she later looked for her license and Medicare card, they were missing. She contacted her bank, which confirmed that photocopies of the missing documents had been used in the attempt to extract funds from her second account.

Coworker CoercionWith a coworker like this, who needs enemies? At 9:15 a.m. on June 17, a 38-year-old man was walking outside 134 West 93rd St. with a coworker of his acquaintance, when they started to argue. The coworker then said, “I will kill anyone for $5,000!” and “If I do not get my $5,000, you will not see your newborn son with your own eyes.” The 38-year-old reported the incident to police, stating that his coworker might have a bipolar disorder and did have a history of prior arrests. Police said the crime is considered an attempted grand larceny by extortion because of the threat.

Witness ProtectionThe presence of a witness managed to thwart a motorcycle theft in progress. At 6:05 p.m. on Monday, June 13, a pedestrian observed a man attempting to remove a 2011 Ducati Hypermotard from in front of 339 West 87th St. When the would-be thief saw the witness, the robber fled. The witness told police that the thief had two other male accomplices, one who remained with a blue minivan and another man who stayed inside a black sedan with an unknown plate number. All three of the bad guys then took off southbound on Riverside Drive in the black sedan before turning east on West 86th Street. They abandoned the minivan at the scene of the aborted crime; it turned out that the van had previously been reported stolen.