A 33-year-old man never knew what hit him on Jan. 16 when a perp bashed him from behind on Union Street and stole his wallet — but the good news is that the thug was later arrested, cops said.
The First Street man told police that he was walking home from Fourth Avenue at around 1:40 am when a man or gang smashed him on the head, knocking him to the pavement.
The perp or perps rifled his pockets and stole a cellphone, wallet, $15 and various cards.
A police source said the victim was a little drunk, and the police report confirmed that he was “unable to cooperate” with the investigation of the crime. But that didn’t prevent cops from doing their job — they later arrested a man who had the stolen property still on him, the report indicated.
Smash ’n’ grab
A Florida woman lost her purse and a credit card when a thief smashed the window of her car parked in a drugstore parking lot on Ninth Street on Jan. 20.
The 35-year-old woman had parked the Jeep Cherokee in the secluded, little-known back parking lot between Fifth an Sixth avenues at around 6:30 pm.
When she returned to the car minutes later, she saw the tell-tale broken glass and noticed that her purse was gone. She quickly cancelled the credit card.
Window watch
A thief reached inside the window of a Warren Street apartment and stole a laptop computer on Jan. 15.
The 63-year-old victim told cops that the burglar simply opened the ground-floor window a crack, slipped out the Mac G4, and fled from the building, which is between Fourth and Fifth avenues.
That hurts
Two computer monitors were taken from a medical office on Eighth Avenue between Berkeley Place and Union Street overnight on Jan. 14.
Police say a perp broke through the glass door on the ground floor sometime between 8 pm and 8:45 the next morning.
Gunvinced
A man who claimed to be broke changed his mind after a panhandler announced that he had a gun on Jan. 18.
The victim told cops that he was standing in front of a building near the corner of Seventh Avenue and Berkeley Place at around 11 pm when a man approached and asked for $20.
“I don’t have any money,” the man said.
But when the panhandler said, “I have a gun,” the man changed his mind and handed over $5.
Irregular
A thief got away with just $60 from an 11th Street coffeeshop overnight on Jan. 13.
The burglar did not damage either of the entry doors at Café Regular, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Some bill!
A woman stole $42,000 in checks from New York Methodist Hospital and deposited them in her personal account, but managed to withdraw just $450 before cops put a stop to it on Jan. 14, police said.
The hospital told cops that the check theft occurred on Dec. 22, but the crime was only uncovered when the perp tried to start withdrawing the money.
A sharp-eyed bank manager had already frozen the account and turned the case over to postal inspectors, who have jurisdiction in such wire-fraud cases.
The suspect’s identity is known from her bank records, though the 24-year-old has not been arrested — yet.
