Naughty neighbor
A 54-year-old Greene Avenue resident was arrested last week on charges that he molested his next door neighbor, police said.
Prosecutors said that Darryl Griffin, who lives near Classon Avenue, went to his neighbor’s home at 1 p.m. on July 7 and rang the doorbell.
When the 60-year-old woman answered the door, Griffin allegedly grabbed her breast and ran off.
Cops took Griffin into custody on July 13, charging him with sex abuse and forcible touching.
According to published reporters, Griffin was accused of groping an 84-year-old woman in early June.
Stealing on credit
A 38-year-old man was arrested on identity theft charges after he went grocery shopping with a woman’s credit cards.
Police said that Robert Hatton was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in connection with the shopping spree that lasted between June 1 and July 12.
His victim, who Hatton knows, claimed that he palmed her credit cards in early June.
In the six weeks that followed, he used the cards to go food shopping at Pathmark, as well as another grocery store, and buy two MetroCards, officials allege.
Shocking steal
Cops were called to Fort Greene Park last week where they found a 46-year-old stealing some juice from all New Yorkers.
Electrical juice, that is.
Police were told that Kelvin Antley had allegedly popped open an access box to a city lamppost and stripped some wires inside near the corner of Myrtle Avenue and St. Edwards Street on the afternoon of July 12.
In the end, he turned the lamppost into a gigantic outlet which he used to power a blaring sound system that he had with him.
Responding officers disconnected the sound system from the lamppost, bringing the party to a close, and charged the man with having an illegal sound reproduction device, criminal mischief, criminal tampering and theft of services.
Gunman search
Police have identified a man who shot at two others during a confrontation on Washington Avenue near Park Avenue.
Investigators believe that 24-year-old Henry McCord opened fire on a 26-year-old male and a 25-year-old male during the 3:15 a.m. shooting on April 6.
One of the victims was shot multiple times in the buttocks and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, officials said.
His companion was also taken to Bellevue Hospital after being shot in the leg. He, too, was listed in stable condition after treatment, officials said.
Investigators did not disclose what prompted the shooting.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting or McCord’s whereabouts is urged to come forward.
Calls can be made to the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Strawberry smack
A security guard at the Strawberry’s store in the Fulton Mall was smacked in the face as he tried to stop a team of shoplifters from fleecing store shelves last week, officials said.
Police have arrested at least one of the thieves wanted in the July 14 theft — the one who assaulted the security guard as she tried to make her escape, officials said.
The guard said that she was monitoring the store, located at 490 Fulton Street, just before 4:30 p.m. on July 14 when he saw a woman bolt outside with five handbags.
The young woman handed the bags over to 56-year-old Theodore Hutchins, who was waiting outside.
Hutchins tried to run off with the bags, but the guard grabbed him. He tried to bat the guard away, but couldn’t loosen her grip, officials allege.
Cops charged him with attempted assault, menacing, harassment and criminal possession of stolen property.
Bike path purloiners
Cops are investigating two thefts on the bicycle path to the Williamsburg Bridge recently.
Police said that the heists took place on the same day, leading investigators to believe that they may have been committed by the same person.
Investigators said that the most recent theft took place at about 10:30 p.m. on July 5 as two young women were walking across the Williamsburg Bridge on their way to a neighborhood bar.
The victims said that they were approaching the Brooklyn side when they were stopped by an unidentified man riding a BMX bike.
The thief reportedly pulled a black handgun and demanded that they hand over all of their property.
“Give me your money, don’t yell out,” the thief reportedly demanded.
The victims handed over their cell phones, some cash and a digital camera to the thief, who then pedaled off, leaving them unharmed.
A few hours before the gunpoint robbery, cops were told that two men on bikes had taken a 43-year-old woman’s iPod.
The victim, a resident of Metropolitan Avenue, told police that she was on the walkway, approaching Havemeyer Street, when a bicyclist barreled into her, knocking the iPod out of her hands.
An accomplice, who was also on a bike, reportedly scooped up the bike and sped off with it, officials said.
Cops are asking anyone with information regarding these two incidents to come forward.
Calls can be made to the 90th Precinct at (718) 963-5311. All calls will be kept confidential.
Restaurant raid
A booze-loving burglar is being sought for raiding an Indian restaurant on DeKalb Avenue.
Workers for the Amin Indian Restaurant, 235 DeKalb Avenue, said that they closed their eatery at 11 p.m. on July 2.
When they opened the next morning, they found their rear door ajar.
Someone had come in, broken the register and took $200 in cash.
A case of beer valued at $60 was also taken, officials said.
It’s raining cement
Two city Department of Environmental Protection employees will be thinking twice about getting into their cars.
The two were nearly killed Monday afternoon when a bucket of cement crashed down on the roof of their city-issued vehicle — just as they were about to get inside it.
The heavy bucket, which fell from the 23rd floor of a building being repaired near the corner of Court and Livingston streets, made a deep crater in the roof of the car, a Toyota Prius, and blew out the windshield, startled witnesses said.
Environmental Protection employee Omar Ishak, 39, told reporters that he had his hand on the car’s door handle when the bucket came plummeting down.
“I consider myself the luckiest man in the world,” he told The Daily News. “A couple of seconds later I would have been dead.”
The two men parked on Court Street so they could go into Borough Hall and get some street maps.
Officials said that both he and his partner were splattered with concrete. But, just the same, they were grateful that it wasn’t their blood.
Inspectors from the city’s Buildings Department issued a stop-work order for the rehab on the building until the accident can be investigated further.
Flim flammer search
Cops are looking for an identity thief who used an area bank to commit his crime.
Police said that the suspect entered an HSBC bank at 200 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights back on June 16 and used a Coney Island resident’s identity and bank information to fill out a withdrawal slip.
He then looted the victim’s bank account and walked out of the bank without being stopped, since everyone believed that he was the victim.
Armed with a surveillance photo, cops are asking anyone with information about this man to come forward.
Calls can be made to the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Mugged on Bond
Police arrested a 21-year-old in connection with a mugging near the corner of Bond and Baltic streets.
The victim said that she was on Bond Street approaching Baltic at 2 p.m. on July 13 when Dwayne Hanson grabbed her and punched her in the face.
Hanson ran off, only to be spotted a short time later with the woman’s purse, as well as the $321 that was in it.
Cops charged Hanson with robbery, harassment, petit larceny, menacing and assault, officials said.
Checkered club
A 48-year-old man has been arrested for an area road rage incident in which a taxi cab driver was hit with a steering wheel immobilizer.
Police said that Frankie Guzman attacked the cab driver at 6:30 a.m. on July 10 after the two pulled over at the corner of Hicks and Amity streets.
The cabbie told police that they were both driving through downtown Brooklyn when Guzman wouldn’t allow him to switch lanes.
When the cabbie did the same, the two reportedly began swerving toward each other.
That ended when both pulled over and Guzman charged him with his steering wheel “club.”
Guzman struck the cabbie in the head with the club and drove away, only to be captured by responding officers.
He was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.
Wipe out graffiti
As the ongoing war against graffiti continues, a $500 reward is being offered to anyone with information about graffiti vandals in their neighborhoods.
The hefty reward is part of the city’s new push to rid New York of graffiti vandals.
Graffiti is one of the leading quality of life complaints brought to police.
Anyone with information about graffiti vandalism is urged to contact either 311 or 911.
