April 12, 2008: Vol. 31, No. 15

Shots rang out in the early morning of April 6, dropping two men to the cold pavement.

Details are still murky, but police responded to reports of gunfire at 3:10 am between Flushing and Park avenues and found two victims.

Both men were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were in stable condition, except for their lips, which were sealed about the shooting.

One of the men did tell cops that the gunman fled in a Ford Expedition.

Off the handle

A greedy hooligan whipped himself into a frenzy while robbing another man in a Myrtle Avenue bodega on March 30.

The victim was a customer attempting to pay for some late-night groceries, but instead, he was attacked by a man who repeatedly pushed the customer in his chest and then threw a punch in the 42-year-old man’s direction.

The thug followed this up by grabbing a milk crate and running out of the store, which is between Carlton Avenue and Adelphi Street, towards the customer’s car. Lured onto the street by this 4 am tirade, the victim was then struck several times by a 2×4 that the attacker had picked up.

The violent thief stole the man’s groceries and $200.

Fool and money

A man trying to buy merchandise out the back door of an Atlantic Avenue electronics shop was hoodwinked by a con man on April 6.

The 42-year-old victim said he handed $1,500 to another man who claimed to be an employee of the retail store, which is between Fort Greene Place and South Portland Avenue. The reason? The imposter had promised to return at around 3:30 pm with two 37-inch television sets for the shopper.

He didn’t come back.

Got no sole

A thief was apprehended trying to steal a pair of shoes from a footwear store on Flatbush Avenue on April 1.

A store security guard witnessed the 45-year-old suspect pilfer the shoes at 5:45 pm and slowed him down long enough for police to arrive and arrest him between Hansen Place and Atlantic Avenue.

Concrete jungle

A horde of 10 young men and women roughed up and robbed a solitary man on the corner of Washington and Greene avenues on March 31.

Bandits struck the 36-year-old victim in the face and knocked him to the ground at 5:15 pm. After the pounding, they stole his cellphone.

On the bright side, police arrested one suspect in the attack, a 19-year-old man, and recovered the victim’s missing glasses from the scene of the crime.

Cheese!

A photographer’s gear was stolen from her parked car on DeKalb Avenue sometime between April 2 and 4.

The 30-year-old shutterbug told police that she had left her car near the corner of Carlton Avenue at around 9:30 am on April 2 and did not return to it almost exactly two days later.

That’s when she found the locked trunk had been jimmied open and her camera, tripod and accessories were missing.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper