Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Customer DetentionA disgruntled bistro customer unhappy with his lunch followed one of the restaurant’s employees into the kitchen and struck him in the head with a sharpening tool, cutting him, police said. The customer, later identified by police as Ramil Gaynullin, 46, then took hold of a knife and cut the 30-year-old employee’s leg, according to a police report. Gaynullin was arrested on assault charges shortly after the Nov. 19 incident at the 225 Bistro on Broadway.

Twisted SistersPolice arrested two teenaged sisters following a cell phone robbery. Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Nov. 28, a man was walking eastbound at the crosswalk of Vandam and Varick Streets when a 15-year-old girl grabbed his cell phone from his right hand and ran northbound on the west side of Varick Street. The victim chased and caught up to her under the scaffolding at 185 Varick, where she handed the phone to a 17-year-old male accomplice, who took off with the phone. Another man shoved the victim to the ground from behind and also ran off. The teenaged girl then said to the victim, “If you follow, I will come back with a gun.” She as well took off northbound on Varick. Police caught up to the sisters, one 15, the other 13, and charged the pair with robbery.

Bulgari WaryA criminal couple made off with some select shades. At 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, a man and a woman walked into the Sunglass Hut at 183 Broadway. As the woman accompanied an employee to the rear of the store and pretended to buy sunglasses, the man snatched three pair of sunglasses while the employee was distracted. The stolen shades were three pairs of Bulgaris with a total value of $1,365.

Bottle BattleA bar patron was charged with assault following an altercation at M1-5 bar on Walker Street during which one man was hit in the head with a bottle. At 2:35 a.m. on Sunday, November 29, a 29-year-old man got into an fight with three other men inside the M1-5 bar on Walker Street. One of the three, a 27-year-old later identified as Joseph Russo, subsequently struck the man with a bottle, causing several lacerations on his face and head. Police arrested Russo later that day, charging him with assault. As he was being transported to the First precinct, Russo told the police, “He came at me” and “I was protecting my cousins; that is all I have to say.”

Wallet WorkoutMore than $10,000 in unauthorized charges were made to credit cards stolen from a gym locker last Friday. A 33-year-old man placed his wallet in a locker inside the Equinox fitness club at 225 Liberty St, locking the locker before heading off for his workout shortly after noon on Nov. 27,. When he returned to the locker at 2 p.m., the locker door was ajar and his wallet was missing. Then at 2:50 p.m., while he was still in the gym, he received an e-mail stating that his credit cards had been used without permission or authority at the 14th Street and Fifth Avenue Apple Stores. He subsequently cancelled the cards. The items stolen from the locker included a brown Tumi leather wallet valued at $180, $80 in cash, plus the amount charged to his cards.