April 21, 2007 / News / Police Blotter / Brooklyn Heights–Downtown

Elderly lady snagged in pimple scam

By Lilo H. Stainton

The Brooklyn Paper

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When the 78-year-old Brooklyn Heights resident received a package of anti-acne products in the mail, she knew something was amiss.

She hadn’t ordered the nationally advertised pimple cure herself — so someone else had the lotions sent to her Clark Street apartment, in a building off Cadman Plaza. The package arrived on April 10.

When the elderly woman checked with her credit card company, which had been billed for the pimple products, she found that more $1,400 in illegal charges had been billed to her account, police said.

ID, savings gone

A quick-acting thief stole a woman’s purse — stuffed with cash and critical personal papers — while she crossed a busy intersection on April 12, police said.

The 45-year-old woman was traversing Willoughby Street, at Jay Street, around 5:15 pm when the thief made his move. He swiped the bag from her right hand and kept going, running down Jay Street toward Atlantic Avenue. The victim never got a good look at her attacker.

The purse held a driver’s license, ATM card, job ID, Social Security card, birth certificate and $3,000.

Shoe attack

Clearly, she was no Cinderella.

A woman smacked a security guard in the face with her shoe when he tried to prevent her from leaving a Fulton Street store on April 8, police said.

It wasn’t clear what prompted the 58-year-old guard to try to stop the woman from leaving the discount store, near Smith Street, just before 5:30 pm. But when he did, the woman became enraged, slipped off her shoe and slapped the guard across the face with the footwear.

The guard suffered a small cut on the right side of his nose.

Mystery visit

Maybe it was the ghost of a Downward Dog.

Someone visited a Clinton Street yoga center — uninvited — on April 9, but left empty-handed and without damaging the place, police said.

Two women who work at the exercise studio, near Joralemon Street, discovered a door open shortly after noon. The place was secure at 8 am and only three people — none of whom had visited — have keys.

Basement burg

The thief scored a bike and tools from the basement, but the crime could have been much more personal, and painful.

Someone sneaked into the locked cellar, near Fourth Avenue, between 8:45 am and 1 pm on April 13. But when the burglar also tried to break into the owner’s private apartment, he succeeded only in damaging the lock, but never made it inside.

The thief left with only two items, a black mountain bike valued at $900, and $50 in hand tools, police said.

Late stab

A man was hospitalized in serious condition after he was viciously attacked by a knife-wielding robber on April 14, police said.

The 33-year-old victim was walking home around 11 pm when the thief jumped him from behind, at the corner of Warren and Bond streets. The robber stabbed him in the back with some kind of sharp object, then plunged the weapon into his stomach and left leg. The brute grabbed $100 — and a baseball hat — from the victim and ran off.

Paramedics took the injured man to Lutheran Medical Center. Police had a hard time getting a straight story from the victim, who could not describe his attacker.

DUMBO heist

Friday the 13th certainly proved unlucky for one DUMBO couple. The pair was targeted by two thugs on the corner of Gold and Water streets, around 10:30 pm.

One brute grabbed the 42-year-old man by his neck, while the other rifled his pockets. The thieves ran off with the man’s cellphone, an ATM card, various credit cards, his driver’s license, a blank check and a check made out to the victim for $100, along with $80 greenbacks.

The 32-year-old woman was not attacked.

Computer swipe

Someone stole electronics valued at over $8,000 from a closed real-estate management company on Livingston Street, police said.

The items disappeared from the company, in a building near Adams Street, between 6 pm on April 1 and 9:15 am on April 12. A 38-year-old employee arrived at work that morning to find the back door open and a Dell laptop, a keyboard and a flat-screen TV.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper