60th Precinct
Coney Island—Brighton Beach—Seagate
Automated crook
Cops cuffed a man who stole they say $800 from a woman at an automated teller machine on Brighton Beach Avenue on March 23.
The woman told police she was grabbing cash from the machine at Brighton Fifth Street around 7 pm when the guy came up behind her, pushed her aside, and withdrew $800 from her account.
He got away, but police caught up with him about a block away and found him with a knife, two driver’s licenses, six credit cards, and three checks that did not belong to him, according to a police report.
Left out in the cold
Two cold-blooded crooks beat up a guy and stole his jacket on W. 31st Street on March 25, police said.
The victim was outside a building between Mermaid and Surf avenues at 7:30 pm when the two came up from behind him. One put him in a chokehold and the other punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground, police stated. They then grabbed his jacket and fled, according to officials.
Bad deal
Two good-for-nothings beat up a couple of teens on West Avenue on March 25, authorities said.
The victims were outside a high school between Shore Parkway and W. Fifth Street around 9:30 pm when the two approached them and said, “white boys, you know the deal,” before one punched one of the teens in the face.
The brutes then turned their attention to the other kid, demanded money, and one started hitting him with a tree branch, according to police. That teen ran once one of the dastardly duo pulled out a knife, but his phone fell out of his pocket in the process. The pair grabbed it and fled.
Hit twice
Burglars broke into utility shops at a W. 23rd Street housing complex on two separate occasions less than a week apart from each other on March 18 and March 23, police said.
A cat burglar broke into the caretaker’s shop at the complex between Mermaid and Surf avenues on March 18, sometime between 4:30 pm and the next morning. He got in through a front gate and stole some garbage bags and a jacket from the caretaker’s shop, then tried unsuccessfully to pry open the doors of the connected plumber’s and carpenter’s shops. The sneak successfully got into a basement maintenance area, however, and took some copper wire and a ladder, according to a police report.
On March 24, a freebooter broke into a paint shop at the complex sometime between 3:30 pm and the next morning, police said. A worker came in for work that morning to find the door pried open and $220 in cash missing from a locker there.
Hammer time
A sledgehammer-swinging burglar broke into a housing complex storage room on W. 32nd Street on March 26, police said.
A worker building between Sea Place and the Boardwalk locked the doors to the room around 1 pm and returned the next day around 10:30 am to find the lock broken and the door wide open.
Upon entering, the worker found someone had smashed through a cinder block wall leading from the neighboring garbage room. Police did not find anything missing.
— Dennis Lynch
