Messy biz

Talk about hitting the mother lode!

A thief broke into a hoarder’s Clinton Avenue apartment on May 1 — but must have run off screaming after suffering a looting overload.

The break-in was discovered several days later when a 60-year-old relative of the hoarder — who hadn’t been home in awhile — visited the apartment between Lafayette and DeKalb avenues and found the door knocked off its hinges.

Since there was so much stuff in the apartment it was impossible to determine if anything had been taken, the relative told police.

iPad pluck

A thief scored an iPad when he snatched a handbag inside Little Louie’s Pizza on Myrtle Avenue on May 6.

A woman left the bag hanging from a chair inside the pizza shop at Adelphi Street at 9 pm. When she returned about 10 minutes later, it was gone.

No laughs

Two giggling goons swiped an iPhone from a 32-year-old man on May 5 as the Manhattan-bound C train he was riding on rumbled into the Clinton-Washington station.

The thieves plucked the phone out of their victim’s hand at 3:58 pm — snickering to each other as they raced out of the train car and up onto Washington Avenue.

‘Cute’ crime

A thug jumped a 38-year-old woman on Greene Avenue on May 6, taking — according to the victim — a cellphone with a “picture of a really cute cat.”

The woman was walking between Carlton and Adelphi streets at 10:25 pm, when the thief put her in a chokehold and ran off with her bag.

Wallet snatch

A thief sneaked off with a woman’s wallet as she shopped inside Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Terminal Mall on May 6.

The victim was walking through the shopping center between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue at 9:20 pm when she realized her bag had been opened.

The mall and its counterpart, Atlantic Center, make weekly appearances in this column, a constant warning to be vigilant.

— Thomas Tracy

©2011 Community Newspaper Group