Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Package thief ArrestedPolice arrested a young man and continued to seek two accomplices in a recent package-snatching incident. At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, November 14, a 60-year-old resident of East 85th Street saw three individuals casing her residential building before they entered the vestibule and removed residents’ packages, according to a police account. Police searched the area, and the witness was able to identify one of the suspects, an 18-year-old man, on East 99th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive. The alleged thief was arrested and charged with burglary and criminal possession of stolen property. Two of the packages were recovered.

Carted AwayIt looks as if local postal employees had another hazard to face beside snow and rain. At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 10, a 29-year-old man from lower Manhattan took off with a USPS mail cart parked outside 249 East 77th Street, police said. The would-be thief man was soon apprehended, arrested and charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Microsoft ScamA senior citizen was victimized in an insidious computer scam. At 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 31, a 65-year-old Upper East Side man turned on his computer, only to find a pop-up that froze the machine and told him to contact Microsoft to fix the problem. He was advised that the repair would cost $1,089, which he agreed to transfer from his account before discovering that he had been scammed.

Check stolen, AlteredPolice remind the public to use permanent ink when you write a check and then mail the check inside your local post office. On Thursday, November 2, a 47-year-old Upper East Side woman mailed a check in the amount of $43.16 using a mailbox located on West 76th Street and Central Park West. On Tuesday, November 14, she discovered that the check had been intercepted and altered to the amount of $3,225, which had been removed from her account.

Hospital TheftCrimes, apparently, also take place even in hospitals. On Wednesday, November 15, a 61-year-old woman from Long Island City checked into the Lenox Hill Hospital on East 77th Street as a patient. She placed her credit cards and cash in a folder inside a bag on her nightstand in her hospital room, according to a police account. When she woke the next morning she discovered that her credit cards and $200 in cash had been taken. Fortunately, no unauthorized usage turned up on the cards.