Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Bad PsychicAn Upper East Side resident was undone by “bad energy” to the tune of $7,600. At 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, a 26-year-old woman was walking on Third Avenue between 87th and 88th Streets when she was approached by another woman, who said that the 26-year-old looked sad and needed help with her bad energy. The 26-year-old wound up paying the other woman the money to help dispel the bad energy, before realizing she had been scammed. Police are continuing to investigate.

Not SantaAn alert apartment dweller thwarted a burglar. At 11:20 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, a 40-year-old woman living on 81st Street between Second and Third Avenues thought she heard noises coming from her roof. She opened some curtains to see an unknown man around 6 feet tall out on her balcony. She screamed, and the man fled in an unknown direction.

Laptop DropAnother burglar was thwarted, this time by the employee of a business. At 7:12 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24, a man entered his place of business on 81st Street between Second and Third Avenues, only to find an unknown man in his early 20s inside the location. The employee yelled at the intruder to stop, but the latter fled through the back door in an unknown direction, leaving a number of laptops belonging to the business on the ground outside the back door.

Idle CrimeA female motorist learned the hard way not to keep your vehicle unlocked and unattended. At 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24, a 51-year-old woman got out of her Mercedes E350 on Madison Avenue, between 75th and 76th Streets, leaving the car unlocked with her purse inside. When she came back fifteen minutes later, her Louis Vuitton bag, valued at $5,000, was missing. The purse held a Chanel wallet priced at $2,000,along with $2,000 worth of jewelry, an iPhone tagged at $500, plus a number of gift cards. In all, the woman’s loss totaled $14,000.

Phantom FirearmPolice arrested a juvenile mugger. At 9:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, a 25-year-old man walking on 86th Street and Lexington Avenue was approached from behind by a 17-year-old male youth who had his right hand in his pocket as if he were pointing a handgun and said, “Give me your phone, or I’ll shoot you in the face.” Apparently, the young man lost his nerve, however, and made off without taking the victim’s phone. The victim called police, who located the young mugger on 84th Street between First and Second Avenues and arrested him for robbery after the victim identified him. As it turned out, the youth did not actually have a handgun on him.