Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Banbury WorryA visitor from England might wish she had stayed on her side of the pond. At 6 p.m. on Sept. 8, a 61-year-old woman from Banbury, England, left her handbag on a chair in the Bailey Restaurant & Bar at 52 William St. while she went to pay her check. When she returned, her handbag and its contents were missing. The contents included a ring worth $1,000, another ring priced at $700 and $300 in cash.

Lost CustomChains don’t seem to deter bike thieves the way they might once have. At 9 p.m. on Sept. 7, a man chained his custom-built bicycle to a street scaffolding opposite 76 Thompson St. His bike was gone was gone when he returned to fetch it shortly after midnight. The bicycle is valued at $1,200.

Pepper AssaultAn area resident became the victim of an apparently random pepper spraying. At 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 10, a 36-year-old man was squirted in the face with pepper spray by an unknown man who had been following him as he made his way to his Desbrosses Street residence. He refused medical attention. He told police he had no idea why the man had pepper sprayed him and could not identify his assailant. He further revealed that he had been intoxicated at the time of the incident and thought that the assailant might have been a construction worker.

Grief CaseConstruction sites often prove fertile grounds for thieves these days. During the time between 3:30 p.m. Aug. 25 and 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 29, electronics inside a man’s briefcase were taken. The man left the case in an unsecured room with no door at a construction site inside 99 Wall St. Multiple contracting vendors had access to the room. The items stolen were an HP Elite laptop valued at $1,800 and a Samsung Galaxy S6 cell phone priced at $650, making a total stolen of $2,450.

Where There’s a Wheel, There’s AwayIt is unfortunate for bicycle owners that their two-wheeled vehicles can be wheeled away so easily. At 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, a man secured his electric bike to a rack in front of 26 Broadway. When he returned at 1 p.m., his ride was gone. He searched the area but didn’t find anything. The stolen vehicle was a black bike valued at $1,400.