Quantcast

Thieves love the iPhone

iGone twice

Thieves swiped the iPhones right out of two people’s hand last week.

In the first incident, the victim told cops that she was at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street on Oct. 19 at around 6:30 pm when a man she never even saw came out of nowhere to grab the fancy smartphone.

The perp than hopped onto a waiting bicycle and sped off.

Two days later, a thief grabbed the iPhone out of a 39-year-old man’s hands at the corner of Fourth Avenue and First Street at around 8:10 pm.

Norway no way

A Norwegian national probably forgot that life in the big city can be mean when she placed her pocketbook on her front stoop for a few seconds on Oct. 19 and then turned around to find it gone.

The 35-year-old told cops that she had placed the purse down on the stoop of her building, which is on Eighth Avenue near Eighth Street, at around 1:30 pm, and it was gone seconds later.

The bag had contained $80, cards and her Norwegian passport.

Twice burned

A man had his old Honda Civic stolen last week — the second time since May that thieves swiped the hotly desired wheels.

In the most recent incident, the victim told cops that he’d parked his 12-year-old Honda on 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues at around 10 pm on Oct. 17. Two days later, when he went to retrieve it, it was gone.

That’s when the victim told cops his sad tale: a thief had swiped the same car from him back in May.

The theft of the old Honda won’t surprise regular Police Blotter readers — decade-plus–old Civics make frequent appearances in these pages. Cops say that the old fuel-sipping models are easy to break into and turn into hot rods.

Burg watchers

At least two shops and one home were burglarized last week. Here’s a round-up:

• A Fourth Avenue dry cleaners was robbed overnight on Oct. 21. The owner had locked up the laundry, which is between Union and President streets, at around 10:30 pm, but when he showed up for work the next morning, he found that his gates had been clipped and $225 had been taken.

• A thief busted into a 10th Street apartment on Oct. 22 and cleaned it out of thousands of dollars in video games and computers. The owner told cops that she was not in the unit, which is between Fifth and Sixth avenues, from 8 am until just after midnight.

• A popular Fifth Avenue restaurant was broken into early on Oct. 24. The thief broke through the basement of Mulino, which is between Sterling and St. Johns places sometime after 1 am to steal $1,100 from a lockbox.

— Gersh Kuntzman