A co-worker of domestic doyenne Martha Stewart was mugged at gunpoint as she walked home from the gym on March 10 — though she didn’t know that the gun was a fake.
Police said that the woman, who lives on President Street, was between Third Avenue and Nevins Street at around 10:30 pm when the perp approached her from behind.
Her grabbed her purse, gestured with what appeared to be a black pistol, and said, “Let it go.”
She relented, and the perp fled south towards Union Street.
Minutes later, police said, he tried to mug a woman on nearby Baltic Street, which is in the confines of the 76th Precinct. But in this case, when he hit his victim over the head with the “gun,” it broke in half.
Cops recovered the gun — and the first victim’s now-empty wallet — at the second crime scene. The 29-year-old woman told cops that it had once contained her cellphone, checkbook, cash, gift and credit cards and her Martha Stewart ID card.
She described her assailant as a 16-year-old man, 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds.
Act fast
A thief grabbed a man’s wallet off the counter of a popular Seventh Avenue pharmacy on March 13.
The victim told cops that the thief got $42 and various identification and credit cards in the 7 pm heist at the drugstore, which is at the corner of Union Street.
Hinged on it
A thief or thieves demonstrated that burglary is the mother of invention on March 14 when they broke into a Ninth Street apartment by taking the door right off its hinges.
The 49-year-old tenant told cops that he was not in the apartment, which is between Second and Third avenues from 9 am to 11:30 pm.
But when he returned, he found the door off the hinges and $5,100 in cash and jewelry missing.
Big burg
A jewel thief got away with quite a haul after breaking into a Third Street apartment on March 14.
Cops say that the thief entered the unit, which is between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West, when the tenant was at work.
When the 35-year-old victim returned at 9:15 pm, he discovered that his once-locked front door was wide open and $13,000 in jewelry was missing.
The thief also got away with a laptop computer and monitor, cops said.
Steal to own
Two former employees of a popular electronics rental store on Fifth Avenue broke into their former workplace and stole two video cameras and two game systems, the owner told cops.
The owner of the store, which is at 15th Street, told cops that he suspected the former employees because they had done the same thing before.
Bite of Apple
A thief stole an Apple laptop from a 12th Street apartment early last week, cops said.
The 29-year-old victim told police that he was away from his home, which is between Sixth and Seventh avenues, from March 9 at 5 pm until March 12 at 9 am.
Neighbors said they didn’t hear a thing.
Stolen IDs
There were at least two more identity thefts in the neighborhood last week, cops said.
The first report came in on March 12, when a 28-year-old Butler Street man told cops that a man was writing checks and transferring money in his name.
The man stole more than $2,100.
Three days later, a 31-year-old Union Street woman told cops that someone had acquired five credit cards by using her maiden name. The thief rang up $10,000 in charges before the crime was reported.
In both cases — as in all identity-theft cases in the 78th Precinct — Detective Tony Shy is on the job.
Card job
A thief stole a man’s bank card in a brazen mugging on Fifth Avenue on March 10.
The 12th Avenue man told cops that he had been walking between Berkeley Place and Union Street on the Slope’s popular restaurant row at around dinner time when the perp approached, stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out the HSBC card.
There was a brief struggle, during which the thief punched the man over the head several times, before he fled down Fifth Avenue.
The man canceled the bank card before it was used, he said.
Cops said they are looking for a 5-foot-11, 185-pound black Hispanic man with short black hair.
Wheely bad
At least three cars were abused — two was stolen, the other vandalized — on Slope streets last week, police said. Here’s a roundup:
• On March 10, a 1994 Chevy Astro van was stolen from the corner of Pacific Street and Fifth Avenue — and the theft was captured on one of those controversial security cameras installed in the area of the Atlantic Yards mege-development by Forest City Ratner Companies.
The 63-year-old owner of the blue van said he parked it at around 2:30 pm, but one hour and fifteen minutes, it was it was gone. Inside, he’d been carrying a jackhammer, a $175 concrete grinder, and a $160 wood saw.
• On March 13, a man returned to his fancy Mitsubishi Eclipse at around 1:30 pm and found that it was no longer where he parked it on Seventh Street between Third and Fourth avenues.
He told cops that the car — which had been equipped with an alarm — was worth $28,000.
• Earlier in the week, a man returned to his Honda at 8:30 am to find that the roof had been slashed and the steering wheel, airbag and seats were missing.
He had parked the car on March 7 at 7 pm on 11th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
