84th Precinct
Brooklyn Heights–DUMBO–Boerum Hill–Downtown
Pay up or your dad gets it
An extortionist ripped off a woman and her boyfriend after tricking them with a fake hostage situation on a train on June 9, cops said.
The scam started around 7:15 am when the malefactor approached the 35-year-old woman on a Manhattan-bound 2 train and told her that her father was being held hostage in the Bronx and that if she did not pay a ransom, his captors would kill him and chop him to pieces, according to a report.
The victim followed the scumbag off the train at the Clark Street stop in Brooklyn Heights, where he doubled down on the scam by getting on the phone with her boyfriend, telling him that he had the victim locked up in a basement and threatening to kill her if he did not pay up, cops said.
The worried boyfriend anted up the numbers for $206 in prepaid gift cards, at which point the fake kidnapper split, leaving the woman safely behind, according to a report.
It later turned out that the woman’s father, the original “hostage,” was safe with family members the whole time, police said.
Ring it in
A scoundrel made off with some pricey jewelry from a Monroe Place apartment when the victim was in the middle of a move between June 11 and June 13, according to police.
The victim, who had just moved from a third-floor apartment to the first floor of the building between Clark Street and Pierrepont Place, was unpacking her belongings when she noticed a cardboard box that was partially opened, a report said. When she checked out the box she found that a thief had made off with a jewelry box containing a platinum and diamond wedding ring valued and a pair of diamond earrings, cops said.
The woman told police she had found what she thought might be a fingerprint on the clear packing tape used to shut the box, according to a report.
Not yours to borrow
Some good-for-nothing made off with a pair of Citi Bikes near Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 12, according to police.
The rightful borrowers of the bikes left them locked up at Furman Street and Cadman Plaza West while they strolled in the park at 5 pm, but when they returned about 20 minutes later, a rogue had swiped the blue bikes, valued at $1,200 a pop, cops said.
Don’t be a tool
Burglars ripped off a shop on Nevins Street sometime between June 11 and 12, making off with hundreds of dollars in tools, police said.
The owner of the shop between Bergen and Dean streets left his business locked up for the night at 6 pm, but when he returned the next day at 1 pm he found that unidentified intruders had forced the door open, damaging the frame in the process, according to a report.
The reprobates managed to grab a box of assorted tools worth $500, according to police.
Ride away
A bike thief made off with a road bike locked up on Joralemon Street on June 9, cops said.
The bike’s owner secured the ride between Court and Clinton streets at 9:40 am, but when he returned at 6:15 pm he found that a miscreant had made off with the 2015 Surley Cross Check, cops said.
Kids these days
A gang of youths assaulted and robbed a man as he sat on a Third Avenue bench on June 11, according to police.
The victim, a 53-year-old man, was sitting near Schermerhorn Street looking at his phone when a group of six boys and two girls approached him and demanded that he stop taking photos of them, according to a report.
Sensing danger, the man tried to run away from the marauders, but they pushed him to the ground, causing bruising and swelling, police said. The group of young wannabe toughs then grabbed his Samsung Galaxy 4 and took off running in an unknown direction, a report said.
— Noah Hurowitz
