September 15, 2007 / News / Police Blotter / Fort Greene–Clinton Hill

Massive mugging spree last week in Fort Greene

By Harry Cheadle

for The Brooklyn Paper

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88th Precinct

Thugs targeted revelers returning home after a night of partying on Sept. 7, resulting in five separate muggings, including one that involved one of the guys who compiles The Brooklyn Paper’s police blotter.

The first incident occurred at around 3 am at the corner of Waverly and Willoughby avenues, where a man ran up behind the 20-year-old Paper reporter and struck him in the head, knocking him to the ground.

The perp held down the victim while he went through his pockets and cut his shirt off his back with a knife. When the victim turned his head to look at his assaulter, the man said, “Don’t look at me!” and struck him again, resulting in a nasty black eye. He then escaped with $35, and a cellphone.

A similar robbery took place an hour later, at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Steuben Street. Three hoodlums followed a man as he left a Taaffe Place nightclub, then pushed him to the ground, cut his clothes, and got away with his glasses and his cellphone, cops said.

At the same time, another mugging was happening on Waverly Avenue, police said. A 30-year-old woman was walking between Myrtle and Park avenues when a man grabbed her purse and said, “Gimme yo’ bag,” and called her a derogatory name.

She refused and held on to her Prada bag, so the thug punched her several times and ripped away the bag, which contained a cellphone and a Blackberry.

Another set of robbers stalked victims by car. First, a man pulled up next to a woman at the corner of DeKalb and Carlton avenues around 7 am and told her, “Give me your bag or I’ll shoot you.” The woman ignored his threat and ran.

The man drove off.

Moments later, police report that the same man, this time with a female accomplice, ambushed another woman on the corner of DeKalb Avenue and St. Felix Street. They pushed her down, injuring her hand, and took her pocketbook before driving away.

In this last case, cops were successful in tracking down the muggers, stopping the car and discovering the woman’s purse inside. The Bonnie and Clyde couple was charged with robbery, and the woman went to the hospital for treatment.

Thief’s friend

Diamonds and cash were stolen from a woman’s Lafayette Avenue apartment after her building’s superintendent left her door unlocked.

The super apparently drilled holes in her locks on Sept. 4 so he could let some contractors in to fix a leak under her sink. Three days later the woman, who lives near South Oxford Street, was shocked to discover her jewelry and cash were gone. She realized that after the contractors had left, the door had remained unlocked.

Among the items missing were a $1,000 diamond watch, a $500 birthstone ring, $600 diamond earrings, a diamond ring worth $1,000, and $300.

Shopping spree

A woman didn’t notice her wallet was gone until the pickpocket used her credit card to buy $400 worth of goods at a local department store.

The woman received a call from her credit card company at 7:30 pm on Sept. 4 telling her that a suspicious charge had been made at a shopping mall on Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

The woman then checked her purse to discover that her entire wallet had gone missing without her noticing.

Grand theft

Two Mercedes Benzes were stolen from two parking garages blocks away from each other on Sept. 6.

The first incident happened around 11 pm at a garage on Ashland Place and DeKalb Avenue. The owner only left her black ML350 unattended for 20 minutes, but that was long enough for the thief to snatch it.

Not even a hour later, the same thing happened at another Ashland Place garage, this one near Fulton Street. The owner left the CLK320, worth $30,000, unattended for half an hour and security cameras spotted it leaving the garage without her.

Cars jacked

At least five cars and a moped were stolen from the streets of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill last week.

A green 1994 Plymouth Voyager, worth $1,500, was taken during the night of Sept. 2 from the corner of Classon Avenue and Quincy Street, where its 71-year-old owner had parked it.

Two nights later, a blue ’93 Buick Century parked on Vanderbilt Avenue between Myrtle and Willoughby avenues was spirited away from its owner, who could be forgiven for wondering why anyone would go to the trouble of stealing a 14-year-old car.

A more-valuable sedan — a ’06 Ford Focus — got stolen around the same time. The owner had parked it on Classon between Myrtle and Park avenues on Sept. 4, but when he returned to it two days later, it was gone.

The next day, a car was jacked from the corner of DeKalb and Carlton avenues. The woman who owned the 2007 Honda Accord parked it late at night on Sept. 6, but by the next evening, it had vanished.

One thief made off with a woman’s keys as well as her 1999 Dodge Caravan on Sept. 8. The woman was working a night shift at a deli near Hall Street.

When she got off duty, she noticed her keys — which she had left behind the counter — were gone.

Heart sinking, she looked out the window and discovered her minivan was gone as well.

The moped was stolen from the corner of Greene and Waverly avenues the night of Sept. 5.

The Italjet was worth $2,000, making it more valuable than at least two of the sedans stolen the same week.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper