Vicious mugging
Three perps — two with guns, one brandishing a chain — mugged a man and a woman just after midnight on July 31 as they walked home from the subway.
The 30-year-old and 26-year-old victims told cops that they had just left the subway complext at Pacific Street and Fourth Avenue when two men pedaled up on bikes and a third approached from behind.
“Gimme your wallet! Gimme your wallet!” the pedestrian perp allegedly said, shoving a gun in the man’s ribs.
Meanwhile, the two bike-bound bandits came over. One pulled out his pistol while the other menaced the couple with a chain.
“Empty your pockets,” one of them said.
The victims did as they were told, handing over an iPod, $100, a monthly Metrocard, $200, a Jack Spade messenger bag and various cards.
The robbery did end with a bit of Monty Python-esque idiocy.
“Don’t turn around,” the third perp allegedly said, adding that the victims should not watch the thieves make their escape. “Count to 10,” he said, before quickly amending the timetable. “No, count to 50. Er, no, count to 100!”
Gang bang
Four men ganged up on a man as he headed home from the Grand Army Plaza subway station on July 29, mugging him for a digital camera and a phone.
Cops say that the gang surrounded the man on Fourth Street between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West at just before midnight. One of the hoodlums acted as if he had a gun under his shirt, though it may just have been his hand.
Still the 30-year-old victim was sufficiently terrified to hand over his camera, phone and $10.
Cabbie conned
A livery cab driver’s life was threatened by a knife-wielding mugger on July 30 — but the good news is that the thug was quickly arrested, cops say.
The driver told cops that he was in his car on the corner of 11th Street at around 3:40 am when a man rushed over, pulled out a knife, and said, “I am going to kill you!”
The driver handed over $40, but cops quickly collared their suspect at the scene. No details were available about the arrest, but the 35-year-old perp was charged with robbery with a dangerous instrument, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and possession of stolen property.
If convicted, he won’t be hailing cabs for at least five years.
This is wrong
A thief took advantage of a man suffering an epilepsy attack on Fourth Avenue on July 26.
The man collapsed at the corner of Ninth Street at around 4 pm, suffering from a seizure related to the Dostoyevskian affliction. While the 47-year-old was unconscious and quivering, the thief grabbed his wallet, which contained $123 and various cards — including his Medicaid and disabled veterans cards.
Don’t look now
A man who was upset when another man supposedly looked at his girlfriend pulled out a knife and slashed the looker on his arm in a Douglass Street bar on Aug. 3.
Cops say that the trio was inside the bar, which is between Fourth and Fifth avenues, at around 1:30 am when the soon-to-be knifeman noticed a man checking out his girlfriend.
“Stop looking at my girl!” the man warned. But instead of a cooling-off period, the warning was immediately followed by a slashing, sending the victim to Lutheran Hospital in distant Sunset Park.
Cops do not believe the 21-year-old was badly injured, as he was a walk-in at the medical center and did not receive stitches.
Comp-u-theft
A thief broke into a Ninth Street apartment on Aug. 3, stealing more than $1,000 in electronic equipment.
The tenant in the unit, which is between Second Avenue and the Gowanus Canal, told cops that he was not home for just 10 minutes between 4:50 and 5 pm — but that was apparently more than enough time for the thief to steal in through the unlocked door and take an Xbox system, a laptop computer and various video games.
Purse thefts
At least three women had their purses stolen by quick-moving thieves last week:
• A woman using the computers at the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch on Grand Army Plaza on July 12 told cops that a thief grabbed her wallet at around 1 pm. She lost $37 and various cards.
• On July 28, a 44-year-old woman told cops that she was dining at a restaurant on Fifth Avenue near Warren Street at around 7:45 pm but left her purse on her chair as she went to the counter to pay. When she got back to the table, the purse — which only had some credit cards inside — was gone.
• On Aug. 2, a woman told cops that her bag was taken off the back of her chair as she ate lunch at a restaurant and take-out place on Fifth Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets at around 12:30 pm. She lost $150 and her purse.
Early AM mug
Two thugs — one of them a fan of the hated Philadelphia Phillies — mugged a DUMBO man on Ninth Street early on Aug. 2.
The 19-year-old man told cops that he was walking towards the F train station at Eighth Avenue from Prospect Park when two men jumped him.
“Turn the f–k around and give me your stuff!” one of them warned, sticking a gun into the man’s ribs.
The second perp then rifled the victim’s pockets, getting a fancy cellphone and $60.
Cops are now hunting for a 5-foot-8, 165-pound man and his accomplice, at whom the victim did not get a good look.
The mugging brought back bad memories for the victim. He told cops that he had been mugged on the F train 15 years ago — which might make him eligible for the “Youngest Mugging Victim Ever” award.
Sidekick snatch
They call them Sidekicks, but more and more, the fancy phones are proving to be a pretty bad friend.
Add one more Sidekick swipe to the growing list of thefts of T-Mobile’s signature phone: On Aug. 1, a thief snagged the device right from the belt clip of a man listening to his iPod at the corner of Fourth Avenue and First Street at around 2:30 pm.
The victim told cops that the thief pedaled up on a bike, grabbed the $300 phone and sped off.
The crime provides yet another reminder of the need for all of these newfangled devices to be incorporated into one, easy-to-conceal device. As The Brooklyn Paper reported last week, thefts of Sidekicks remain disturbingly common.
Seventh hell
A thief stole a computer out of a Seventh Avenue apartment on July 31.
The victim told cops that she had left the apartment at midnight, but when she returned eight hours later, the unit, which is between Garfield Place and Carroll Street, had been ransacked. After she sifted through the wreckage, she discovered that her laptop computer was missing.
She also told police that her apartment had been burgliarized two months earlier.
— Gersh Kuntzman
