Basement bruiser
A worker at an all-night Bond Street store was beaten, brutalized and then locked in the basement as a 27-year-old thief made off with thousands of dollars in receipts, cops said this week.
Police alleged that Mutea Hujran entered the store, located near State Street, at 1:30 a.m. on July 28 and began hitting the employee he found inside with a stick.
Hujran kept whacking at his victim, forcing him back until he fell down a flight of stairs behind him that led to the basement, police alleged.
Prosecutors allege that Hujran then closed the basement door, barricaded it with a heavy object and proceeded to rip a telephone and surveillance cameras off the walls.
He then took upwards of $3,000 in property, which included cash from the register, police alleged.
Once the employee freed himself from the basement, he called police and was taken to an area hospital, officials said.
He suffered a deep cut to the head during the attack that needed 42 staples to close.
During a short investigation, cops zeroed in on Hujran, who was charged with assault, menacing, unlawful imprisonment, criminal mischief, petit larceny, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon.
Mugging menace
A 25-year-old man was arrested last week when he punched an area resident in the face during a failed robbery at the corner of Fulton and Flatbush avenues, officials said.
Police alleged that Kevin Hernandez approached his victim at 10:13 a.m. on July 25 and grabbed his pocket, demanding that he give him some money.
When the victim refused the order, Hernandez allegedly punched him in the face and ran off.
Cops caught up with him a short time later, charging him with assault, menacing, attempted petit larceny, attempted grand larceny and harassment.
Almost nabbed
A pickpocket looked a 20-year-old man in the eye and said he had nothing to do with his wallet’s disappearance inside the Target at the Atlantic Center Mall, area cops were told.
The victim told police that he was inside the mega-store, located at 139 Flatbush Avenue, just after 1 p.m. on July 26 when he put his wallet on a register counter.
He said he turned away for just a moment, and when he turned back, his wallet was gone.
Police were told that he turned to a 30-year-old man near him and asked him if he had seen his wallet.
The man said he hadn’t.
Yet the store’s video surveillance system tells a different story.
When the victim reported that his wallet had been taken, security checked the video logs to discover that the man the victim had spoken to did indeed palm the wallet when he wasn’t looking.
Cops were looking for the thief as this paper went to press.
Unprovoked attack
An unidentified man was arrested last week for attacking a stranger with a metal bat during a bizarre confrontation in Boerum Hill.
Cops from the 84th Precinct were told that the suspect, 53, approached a 30-year-old woman walking by the corner at 12:30 p.m. on July 20 and struck her in the wrist and forearm with the baseball bat.
The woman’s injuries were minor, officials said.
Cops quickly arrested the 53-year-old and charged him with assault, although it wasn’t clear what prompted the attack in the first place.
More sticky situations
It seems that at the Target in the Atlantic Center Mall, even store employees aren’t safe from pickpockets.
A 20-year-old employee told police that she hung her bag up on a door in a back room of the store during a shift break at 5:19 p.m. on July 26.
She came back to the back room a short time later to discover that her bag had been rifled through.
Her iPod and Social Security card had been taken, officials said.
Booze burglars
Thieves broke into the Khrome Lounge, a nightspot on Atlantic Avenue near Waverly Avenue, taking nearly $350 in liquor, officials said.
Officials said that the thieves somehow used a key to get into the club sometime between 1:30 and 10 p.m. on July 25.
When workers did an inventory of what had been taken, they discovered that the thieves had spirited away with three bottles of Patron liquor, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Johnnie Walker
DUMBO attack
Cops are investigating a man’s claims that he was attacked and robbed by three teens that caught him off guard by asking him the time.
The victim said that he was at the corner of Sands and Adams streets in DUMBO at 8 p.m. on July 12 when the teenage thieves approached with their question.
When the victim ignored them, they attacked.
Police were told that one of the suspects punched him in the head while the others ordered him to empty out his pockets.
The thieves ran off with the victim’s money and cell phone, cops were told.
