Crime Watch

By JERRY DANZIG

cHURCH MONEY STOLENA crook may have to answer to a higher authority after fleecing the faithful. On March 24, the treasurer of a local church wrote a check and sent it to a board member, as she did every month. The board member subsequently contacted her, saying that the check, for $133,969, had never been received. The treasurer called her bank and was advised that the check had been cashed by someone other than the person to whom it had been made out. Apparently, the thief had used an out-of-state ID to cash the check.

Man MuggedAt 8:45 p.m. on March 25, a 44-year-old employee of the Mexican Consulate was walking home when he was approached by three men, two of them aged about 25, the other closer to 30 years old, in front of 50 West 88th St. The 30-year-old approached the man, pushed him against a metal railing, grabbed both his arms, and pulled them behind his back. The second mugger then approached the victim, put a silver-colored blade knife to the 44-year-old’s abdomen, and said, “Give me the money. You do not want to die.” The victim replied that he had nothing of value on him, but the second perpetrator searched his pants pocket and removed some items. Meanwhile, the third baddie stood by and acted as lookout. The second man then told the victim not to move, before the perpetrators fled eastbound on 88th Street toward Central Park West. Police searched the area but could not locate the three thugs. The items stolen included a Mexican Consulate ID, a black leather wallet valued at $15, $500 in cash, and an iPhone 6s valued at $800, making a total stolen of $1,315.

The Key to a BurglaryIn mid-January, a 66-year-old woman living at 336 Central Park West left a shopping bag filled with jewelry valued at nearly $51,000 in her bathroom. She noticed the jewelry was missing on March 9. The victim lives alone, and there were no signs of forced entry to her apartment. She also told police that she occasionally has left her door keys in her front door lock by accident. Recently, in fact, her building doorman told her that she had left her key in her door lock, and he had put it in the building’s lockbox for safekeeping with other spare keys. The missing jewelry includes a diamond tennis bracelet, an amethyst bracelet and earrings, an emerald-and-diamond tennis bracelet, an emerald-and-ruby ring with diamonds, an opal-and-diamond ring, an emerald-cut topaz pendant on a yellow gold chain, a diamond head locket, a bangle bracelet, yellow gold earrings with eilat stone, and an amount of European currency.

So Much for Philadelphia FreedomCan residents of Philadelphia leave their apartment doors open with impunity? On March 23, a 34-year-old man visiting from Philadelphia left the rear patio door slightly open for his dog at an apartment at 6 West 87th Street. Before he returned at 4 p.m., an unknown perpetrator entered through the rear door and removed property before fleeing through that door. Police searched the area but could not locate the thief or the missing property. The items stolen were two gray 32 GB iPads, a black watch box, a variety of watches by Michael Kors, Invicta, Hugo Boss, Blackie, Nixon, Swatch and Skagen, and a gold wedding ring. The total stolen came to $4,208.

Parochial SchoolingOn July 17 of last year, a 33-year-old man left his laptop in a closet adjoining the second-floor classroom of a private/parochial school at 15 West 86th St. When he returned the following Monday, he found that the laptop was gone. For some reason he did not report the crime to police until March 25 of this year. The stolen laptop was a 17-inch MacBook valued at $3,049.