Subway snatch

A teenager snatched a straphanger’s wallet as she waited to swipe through the turnstile at the F train station at Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street on Sept. 10.

With subway riders patiently queuing up at the turnstile during the morning rush, as 16-year-old boy ran down one flight of steps, rushed through the mezzanine level, grabbed a woman’s wallet and then fled up the opposite flight, knocking down another subway rider in the process.

The woman who’s wallet was grabbed gave chase, but did not catch the swift assailant, who got away with various cards and $5.

“I was directly behind the poor woman who was mugged and I was knocked down as a result,” the other victim posted on the popular Park Slope Parents Web site.

“Out of nowhere, this young kid runs between myself and the woman in front of me and takes the wallet right out of her hand. In his haste, he pushed me out of his way and I fell.”

“I am shocked at the audacity” of the thug, the woman added.

Gun scare

Two thugs flashed a handgun, but didn’t take anything during an attempted mugging late on Sept. 11.

The would-be victim told cops that he was on Third Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues at around 11:40 pm when he felt a presence behind him.

He turned around to find himself staring down the barrel of a pistol.

“Give me everything you’ve got,” the gunman said. “Don’t try to run.”

Despite the warning, the man did run away, fleeing the scene and the hapless muggers.

Take the key!

A furniture store driver who left a fancy set of wheels running outside his company’s Fifth Avenue location returned minutes later to find that someone had driven away with it.

Cops said that the driver left a Mercedes Benz sedan idling on the block between 11th and 12th streets at around 1:30 pm. He said he saw a man jump behind the wheel and drive off, but that was the last he saw of the car.

Gym rat

Yet another gym member had his locker broken into at the New York Sports Club on Ninth Street on Sept. 10.

The workout fiend told cops that he had been exercising in the gym, which is at Fifth Avenue, between noon and 1:15 pm, when he returned to the changing room to find that credit cards had been taken from his once-secure locker. Three purchases had been made before the cards were cancelled.

Break-in central

At least four homes were busted into by thieves last week. Here’s a round-up:

• A thief kicked in the rear basement window of a house on Ninth Street between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West and took $6,500 in power tools. The victim told cops that the house was being worked on, giving the thief easier access between 6 pm on Sept. 5 until the crime was discovered at 8 am on Sept. 8.

• A Union Street man returned home on Sept. 8 to find that a thief had busted through his apartment door and stolen his iPod. The victim told cops that he was out of the unit, which is between Sixth and Seventh avenues, from 9:30 am until 7 pm.

• More than $20,000 in jewelry was swiped from a President Street apartment on Sept. 10. The tenant in the apartment, which is between Fourth and Fifth avenues, told cops that she was not home from 1 pm until 11 pm, when she returned to discover that hundreds of pieces had been taken.

• Nearly $20,000 in high-tech electronic toys were taken from an apartment on Ninth Street between Second and Third avenues in a one-hour blitz on Sept. 13. The victim told cops that he was not in the apartment between 8:30 and 9:40 pm, when he returned to discover that a veritable electronics store had been taken.

— Gersh Kuntzman

©2009 Community Newspaper Group