Crime Watch

BY JERRY DANZIG

Central Park WorstRiding the subway can be enough of an ordeal, but for one man getting off it was even worse. At 11:10 p.m. on Jan. 10, a 35-year-old man had just left the subway station at 88th Street and Central Park West when a man approached him from behind at 86th Street and pointed a firearm at his stomach. The perpetrator demanded cash, and the victim removed his wallet from his pants before giving the thug $40 and his headphones. The mugger then ordered the victim not to move or call the cops while he fled the location. Police searched the area but couldn’t locate the armed robber. The victim was not injured.

How Low Can You Go?Three bad guys added injury to insult after a store employee tried to retrieve a stolen tip jar. At 1:55 a.m. on Jan. 11, an employee of the Hot & Crusty Bakery Cafe at 2393 Broadway followed three perpetrators into the street after one of them had taken the store’s tip jar and some cookies. When the culprits realized they were being followed, they hit the employee and reached into his left jeans pocket, taking his iPhone 6. The trio fled northbound on Broadway. Police couldn’t find them, but the tip jar did turn up on West 90th St. The total value of the items and cash stolen came to $430.

Assault At noon on Saturday, January 14, an 18-year-old woman and her boyfriend got into a dispute inside her West 101st Street residence because her baby was throwing up, according a police account. The boyfriend got upset and pushed her against a wall before punching her on her right hip. He then took her cellphone and ran out of the building. The woman told police she was not hurt and refused medical attention.

Jarring ExperienceA young man got more than cold cuts at a local deli following an altercation. At 10:10 a.m. on Jan. 12, a 26-year-old man was having a verbal dispute with another individual inside the West Park Deli at 19 West 103rd Street when the latter struck the 26-year-old in the back of his head with a glass jar, cutting him. The victim was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. The cause of the dispute is unknown.

Raising CanePolice arrested a man in a cane attack. At 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 14, a witness went to retrieve a 42-year-old man’s mail from behind the front desk at 2508 Broadway. A third individual, a 50-year-old woman, had her back turned to the 42-year-old man who then struck her in the back with his cane. The victim complained of pain and discomfort in her back but refused medical attention. Israel Ogundola was arrested January 14 and charged with assault 2, using a blunt instrument.