Bursting into flames
All three lanes of the northbound Brooklyn Queens Expressway were shut down Monday morning following a collision that caused one of the vehicles to burst into flames.
Firefighters were dispatched to the BQE near Exit 28A by the Fulton Ferry, following the 1:30 p.m. crash on October 6.
Witnesses said that a tractor-trailer and a sedan impacted. Seconds later, the tractor trailer caught fire.
While firefighters had the blaze put out in about 15 minutes, several hours were needed to remove the two mangled vehicles and inspect the overpass for damages.
No serious injuries were reported.
Glove grabber
A sticky-fingered woman was arrested last week after she was allegedly caught on camera stealing a pair of gloves.
Officials alleged that 53-year-old Elizabeth Smith went into the Court Street store at 1:45 p.m. on October 2.
A surveillance camera allegedly pictured her grabbing a pair of gloves and placing the gloves in her bag.
Store security guards grabbed Smith at the door and held her until police in the 84th Precinct could charge her with petit larceny.
Tow truck rob
A crew of thieves broke into a tow truck on Atlantic Avenue last week, taking an assortment of tools and equipment.
Police said that workers for Cobble Hill Super Service, 112 Atlantic Avenue, were returning from a tow job at 6:10 a.m. on September 23 when they spotted three males running from one of their vehicles.
The thieves reportedly jimmied their way inside the 2004 Ford truck, taking a tow chain, airbag and lock-out rod. The thieves also took a $50 jack and two battery packs valued at $180 apiece.
Cops were still looking for the thieves as this paper went to press.
Bad ’scrips
A 59-year-old woman was arrested last week after she was caught allegedly using a forged prescription at a borough Rite Aid store.
Police said that officials at the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) led them to Barbara Manas, who had purchased a prescription for Ensure on her Medicaid card back in January 2007.
The card was charged $109.25 for the Ensure, officials said.
A HRA investigator researched the purchase, learning that the card was used to buy a prescription that was written by a Dr. Crummer.
The investigators contacted Crummer, who said that he never gave a prescription to Manas.
When Manas was questioned, she said that an unnamed accomplice wrote the prescription out for her.
Cops arrested Manas on October 7, charging her with petit larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Insuring an arrest
A 26-year-old motorist was arrested last week when he went into the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Atlantic Avenue to contest a ticket with bogus and forged car insurance and registration papers, police alleged.
Prosecutors allege that Teheshus Isaac went into the DMV on October 1, claiming that a ticket he received back on July 2006, for expired registration and insurance should be dismissed.
To prove his point, he allegedly showed the administrative judge paperwork that showed that his Alabama registration and insurance would expire several months after he received the ticket.
Investigators checked out his story to find out that both the insurance and registration were allegedly both expired.
The ones he had provided to the administrative judge had allegedly been forged, they learned.
Isaac was taken into custody last week, charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, offering a false instrument for filing and insurance fraud.
Prying their way in
A crowbar-carrying thief is being sought for a recent burglary on Court Street near Congress Street.
The 35-year-old victim told police that she left her home at 2:30 p.m. on October 1.
She returned at 7:40 p.m. that night to find the door to her building unlocked.
The second vestibule door was also not secure, she said.
When she went up to her apartment, she found the door open. There were several scratch marks on the door frame – indicating that someone had pried the door open.
Items taken from the home included a Compaq laptop computer and $4500 in jewelry.
Cops were looking for the thief as this paper went to press.
Knocked around
An area man was beaten up and nearly robbed during a confrontation outside the Atlantic Center Mall, officials said.
Police were told that the victim was punched, kicked and knocked to the ground during the attempted robbery at 10 p.m. on September 27.
The thief tried to take the victim’s wallet, but ran off empty-handed.
Responding officers caught up with the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Christopher Boomer, a short time later, charging him with attempted robbery, assault, menacing and harassment.
Lunchtime rob
Cops are looking for two thieves who are quite particular about who they have lunch with.
A 28-year-old man told police last week that he was having his lunch at the corner of Bond and Baltic streets at 1:10 p.m. on September 25 when the two suspects crept up to him from behind.
The thieves threatened him and told him not to move, then demanded that he give them over all of his money – which amounted to $15.
The thieves then told their victim that they never wanted to see him at the corner of Bond and Baltic streets again, cops were told.
No harm came to the victim, who is undoubtedly dining elsewhere these days.
Wipe out graffiti
As the ongoing war against graffiti continues, a $500 reward is being offered to anyone with information regarding graffiti vandals in their neighborhoods.
The hefty reward is part of the city’s ongoing 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.
Finger pointing
An area man suffered a broken finger when two middle-aged thugs robbed him of his cell phone on Fulton Street near Washington Avenue, police alleged.
The victim told police that he was nearing the corner at 3:50 a.m. on October 6 when Michael Thompson and Darren Lyons, both 43, attacked him, alleged police.
The suspects reportedly hit their victim in the hand with a steering wheel immobilizer as he was holding onto the cell phone, police said.
The victim dropped the cell phone, which the thieves allegedly ran off with.
A short time later, responding officers found Thompson and Lyons nearby in a car, where the steering wheel lock and the victim’s cell phone were found.
The victim was brought to an area hospital to mend his broken finger.
Thompson and Lyons were charged with robbery, grand larceny, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Leg kicker grabbed
A 25-year-old area man arrested for an attack on Clifton Place found himself in deeper trouble when cops recovered a large knife from his person, alleged officials.
Police said that Christopher Jennings was arrested last week on charges of assault, menacing, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon.
According to prosecutors, cops nabbed Jennings shortly after the 12:40 a.m. attack on October 7 when he repeatedly kicked his victim in the legs.
The arresting officers allegedly found a knife over four inches long on his person when he was taken into custody.
Molester arrested
Cops have arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with three area sex attacks stretching back to January.
Police announced last week that they had connected DNA evidence recovered from three separate incidents to one man: Erick Lewis of St. Mark’s Avenue.
Lewis, the DNA showed, was allegedly responsible for grabbing a 38-year-old woman in the elevator of a nearby building at 1 p.m. on January 17 and then dragging her to the laundry room, where he sexually assaulted her.
He is also being charged with pulling a gun and sexually assaulting a 27-year-old woman inside an elevator in an area building on August 17, as well as a third similar attack on a 41-year-old woman on September 11, when he again sexually assaulted his victim at gunpoint.
Police said that by the time they had linked the attacker’s DNA profile to Lewis, who was compelled to give a DNA sample during a previous prison stint, he had fled the area.
Detectives caught up with him in Birmingham, Alabama on October 2 and were in the process of extraditing him back to New York as this paper went to press.
Nabbed for robbery
Police have arrested the third member of a four-person team allegedly responsible for robbing a man on Carlton Avenue back in September.
Police said that 44-year-old Daldric Fortner was taken into custody last week, charged with robbery, grand larceny, assault, menacing and criminal mischief in connection with the September 7 robbery.
The victim claimed that he was walking to his car parked near the corner of Carlton and Atlantic avenues at 7:15 p.m. when Fortner and two women – believed to be sisters – and another man allegedly grabbed hold of him.
The suspects allegedly pulled him from his car and punched him repeatedly.
One of the thieves also cut into the victim’s clothes with a knife and ripped a gold chain from his neck, alleged police.
The thieves then threw a brick through the back window of the car, taking an undisclosed amount of property, police alleged.
