Crime Watch

Shoplifter ArrestedOn July 2, a 24-year-old woman was observed taking five dresses, including an Amanda Uprichard, into a fitting room. When she came out of the fitting room, she was carrying only two dresses, which she returned to their display racks. Store security checked the dressing room and found that the three missing dresses were not there. The woman was intercepted trying to leave the store and found to be concealing the unaccounted-for dresses, valued at $1,656. She was arrested and charged with grand larceny.

Under the Influence and Under ArrestOn the early morning of July 3, a 31-year-old male motorist was stopped at a police checkpoint at 309 East 61st Street. The man refused a breathalyzer test, but police could smell alcohol on his breath, he was slurring his speech, and he had an open beverage on the front seat of his car. He was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Wrong OpticsOne would-be burglar had an eye out for opticians. Police said that on July 3, a 32-year-old man threw a fire hydrant cap at the door of the OPTYX Store at 1225 Lexington Ave., and took off on foot after setting off the store’s burglar alarm. Then at 9:35 a.m., he succeeded in breaking the glass front window of the Leonard Opticians store at 1264 Third Ave. and stole the glasses on display, valued at $6,975, according to police. Responding to the earlier alarm, police were surveilling the area and spotted the suspect outside 1335 Third Ave., where they identified him from one of the store’s videos and arrested him for burglary. The stolen eyeglasses were all recovered.

Unfurnished BusinessTwo guys in a box truck turned out to be not movers but removers. On July 3, two men in a box truck showed up at 303 East 83rd Street to relocate some furniture for a 28-year-old man who had hired him through craigslist. The man paid the movers the agreed-upon $180, and they loaded his couch and table into their truck. Then they failed to show up at the appointed destination. So the young man never again saw his couch, table or payment, making a total value lost of $1,380.

Off-duty cop arrests suspected burglarAn off-duty officer was in the right place at the right time to nab a degenerate burglar. At 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, the officer was sitting in Carl Schurz Park reading a book on his day off when he heard a 45-year-old woman scream, “PERVERT!” The officer then looked up and saw the woman take a picture of her alleged attacker with her cell phone. The officer followed the man as he fled the park heading north-northwest. The also called 911 and soon was joined by two officers from the 23rd precinct, who intercepted the man outside 520 East 90th Street. The victim identified the suspect as her attacker, stating that she had been lying face down wearing a bathing suit and sunbathing in the park when the man approached her and grabbed her buttocks. The suspect, Thomas Cronin, 54, was arrested on a charge of forcible touching. It was later discovered that he was also responsible for 11 prior burglaries in a number of different precincts.