Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

2 CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH KILLINGTwo men arrested in the stabbing death of a Connecticut man who’d attended a party at a Manhattan luxury apartment are now charged with concealing a corpse and hindering prosecution.

James Rackover of Manhattan and Lawrence Dilione of Jersey City were arrested on charges that initially included murder. They were arraigned only on the lesser charges.

Nonetheless, during the hearing last week, Assistant District Attorney Antoinette Carter alleged that “one or both of these people committed a murder.”

Authorities found a body in Oceanport, New Jersey, on Wednesday while investigating the disappearance of Joseph Comunale of Stamford, Connecticut. Police say the 26-year-old Hofstra University graduate had gone with friends to a club. He was later seen going to the party with different people.

The Associated Press

Sticky Fingers FingeredPolice picked up a purse-snatcher. At 5:20 a.m. on Nov. 12, a New Jersey woman’s purse, and the $5,000 within it, went missing from the Hanover Square bar where she was sitting. Police subsequently arrested Queens resident Miguel Castellanos, age 37, and charged him with grand larceny.

LeatherdemainJudging from this week’s stories, thieves are doing their holiday shoplifting early this year. At 3:40 p.m. on Nov. 12, a woman who appeared to be in her mid-60s entered the Balmain store at 100 Wooster St. and took a women’s leather jacket valued at $4,690 to the fitting room, where she hid it on her person. She then left the store without paying, heading toward Spring Street on foot.

Crocodile ArrearsAnother shoplifter’s handiwork: stealing a pricey handbag. At 1:05 p.m. on Nov. 13, a woman in her 30s went into the Prada store at 575 Broadway and made off with a black Prada bag with crocodile handles valued at $4,000. Police searched the neighborhood but could not find the robber or the stolen bag.

Emptying the EmporioMale shoplifters have been hard at work recently as well. At 5:41 p.m. on Nov. 10, two men entered the Emporio Armani store at 410 West Broadway and took Emporio Armani leather backpack valued at $1,695 and a leather messenger bag priced at $1,000 from a table and fled in separate directions, with on heading south on West Broadway, and other west on Spring Street.

UPSETTING THE APPLE STORENo report on area shoplifters would be complete without a story about an Apple Store. At 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, a number of men went into the Apple Store at 103 Prince St. and seven iPhones worth a total of $2,286 from store shelves before scampering from the premises without paying. The theft was not noticed until almost a half an hour after the incident.