88th Precinct
Fort Greene-Clinton Hill
Have his cake
Things went from bad to worse for Cake Man Raven, confectioner extraordinaire, last week.
First, disgruntled employees charged the famous Fulton Street baker owed them $500,000 in unpaid wages, then hoodlums burglarized his shop overnight on July 27.
The store manager arrived at 8:20 am to the bakery, which is near the corner of South Oxford Street, to find the register knocked to the floor. The thief had taken $250, a flat screen television and the home theater system, all of which were there when the bakery closed at 10:30 pm.
Customer’s always wrong
Employees of a car wash on Flatbush Avenue Extension sent a dissatisfied customer to the emergency room with broken ribs for complaining about bad service on July 25.
An argument erupted at 6:10 am between the 55-year-old victim and one of the attendants of the shop, which is between Willoughby Street and Myrtle Avenue. The car owner pointed out that the worker did not apply Armor All to his tires. Soon, a pack of other workers rallied around the customer and one of them sucker-punched the man in the gut, busting several ribs. The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment.
Police arrested a 32-year-old man for assault.
No mo’ Moped
A hoodlum stole a Moped parked on Fort Greene Place overnight on July 28.
The 41-year-old victim told police that he had parked his scooter between DeKalb and Lafayette avenues at 9 pm, but when he returned at 1:20 am, the vehicle was gone.
Citizen’s arrest
A woman who had been mugged by a posse of teenagers on Ashland Place on July 30, helped apprehend one of the attackers.
The 23-year-old victim told police that the horde followed her from the subway station at 12:25 pm and demanded her pocketbook. When she refused, one of the punks socked her in the mouth. Then the hoodlums ran off with her bag, which contained $50, but the spunky lady chased one of the muggers down, between Myrtle Avenue and Willoughby Street and restrained him until police arrived.
Police said they found a small amount of marijuana in the 17-year-old’s possession.
Dirty work sites
Police arrested four thieves trying to rip off two different construction sites on July 30 and 31.
In the first incident, police observed two men inside a locked location at the corner of Park Avenue and Ryerson Place at 7:15 pm. Cops saw the crooks steal rebar, a vital material used in the making of reinforced concrete, and head to their nearby parked van. Both suspects were arrested.
The following day at 8:30 pm, near the corner of Park and Vanderbilt avenues, officers watched two men remove more rebar from the work site and load it into their parked van.
You were sleeping
A burglar preyed upon a Washington Avenue home on Aug. 1 while the family slumbered.
The thief was not completely silent, however, because some noise woke up the wife. She checked on her children and, noticing nothing wrong, went back to sleep.
But around 8:45 am, her husband discovered his laptop was missing. Perhaps most disturbingly, they discovered that the burglar had entered and exited through their children’s bedroom window, which was wide open, and the window ledge was damaged on the house between Myrtle and Willoughby avenues.
Beat down
Four thugs mugged and beat up a man on Washington Avenue on Aug. 2.
The 29-year-old victim told police a man accosted him at 10:19 and asked for a dollar. He turned him down and the supplicant had some derogatory remarks for him. This man and three of his friends trailed the victim to the next corner, at Greene Avenue, where he again asked for money. This time, when the 29-year-old said he had nothing, he was punched in the mouth and beaten to the ground by the quartet. They took his bag, containing various forms of ID and banking and credit cards, but not a single cent, and slashed his shirt with a box cutter before running off.
— Mike McLaughlin
