Wi–NO!
A man fended off a pack of attackers by arming himself with a broken wine bottle on Clifton Place on Oct. 5.
The 41-year-old victim told police that three or four young men wearing hooded sweatshirts struck him in the back of the head with an unknown object at 1 am at the corner of Grand Avenue. He fell to the ground, but managed to turn a nearby wine bottle in a jagged weapon by breaking it against the sidewalk.
One of the hoodlums, now intimidated by the victim’s own weapon, had the gall to ask him, “What’s wrong with you?” before he and his fellow assailants turned yellow and ran off.
After chasing the fleeing thugs, the man was taken to Brooklyn Hospital for cuts on his hand and a bump on the back of his noggin.
Pot luck
A drug-dealing imposter robbed a man on the corner of Irving Place and Gates Avenue on Oct. 1.
The victim told police that a man tried to sell him some weed at 2:15 am. The victim declined the offer and, sensing trouble, ran away. But the pusher chased him down, pulled him away from the well-lit corner and removed $60 from the man’s wallet.
Pirate aisle
Police busted a man for shoplifting at an Atlantic Avenue supermarket on Sept. 30.
The buccaneer was seen taking several packages of shrimp, tilapia filets and, from the butcher, two steaks — and then try to leave without paying for them.
An employee of the grocery, between Fort Greene Place and South Portland Avenue, tried to stop the hungry hoodlum, but was knocked down. However, a patrol officer nearby caught the suspect outside the store.
Nothing’s sacred
Burglars broke into a Classon Avenue church and pilfered the its offices overnight on Sept. 27.
The infidels entered by shattering a window after 5 pm — on the Sabbath, no less.
The director of the church, between Myrtle and Willoughby avenues, told police that the thieves took a cellphone, computer scanner, office supplies and files.
Can’t hide
Police arrested one of two teens who robbed another pair of adolescents on St. Felix Street on Sept. 29 thanks to the help of a witness who chased the fleeing muggers.
The 17- and 18-year-old victims told police that the hooligans called to them at 1 pm. When the unsuspecting friends went over, the delinquents so frightened them with a weaponized screwdriver that they gave up a laptop, iPod, headphones, cellphone, a Gucci belt and gold chain.
But a 24-year-old stranger who watched the crime unfold between Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue pursued the punks to the subway station, where he was able to detain one villain until the police arrived to make an arrest. Only the laptop was recovered.
One for three
Police arrested one third of a trio that knocked a 17-year-old boy to the ground on Fort Greene Place and robbed him on Sept. 29.
The young ruffians — all were teenagers, the victim said — grabbed their mark from behind at the corner of Hanson Place at 2:40 pm and threw him to the pavement. They stole his phone, but cops arrested a 15-year-old suspect soon after.
Young mug
Two hoodlum robbed a 12-year-old boy at gunpoint on the corner of Ashland and Hanson places on Sept. 29.
The schoolboy told police he was on his way home at 3 pm when two men stepped into his path and brandished a firearm.
“You know you have to run your pockets,” one of the thugs said.
The tween complied and handed over his mobile phone to the muggers.
Cool out
Burglars broke into two nearby apartments by knocking out the air conditioning units from the windows.
The first break-in occurred in a Lafayette Avenue building on Sept. 29 sometime between 8:30 am to 10:30 pm. When the tenant returned to the building, which is between Carlton Avenue and Adelphi Street, she found that her laptop and A/C had been stolen from the first-floor apartment.
The second incident took place a few blocks away on Clinton Avenue.
The victim told police that she was not home from 2:30 pm on the Sept. 30 until 12:10 am the next morning. Like the other crime, the air conditioner was taken from her first-floor window between Fulton Street and Gates Avenue. She told police that the intruder took her laptop and an iPod.
Stick up
Gun-toting bandits stuck up a Fulton Street deli on Oct. 1.
Two men aroused the clerk’s suspicions by asking to see the phone cards that were for sale at 1:50 am and then exiting the bodega between Washington Avenue and St. James Place without making a purchase. They returned moments later with a third conspirator and all whipped out firearms.
One man grabbed the phone cards that had not been put back away yet and another hurried the clerk to empty the register, which contained $300.
Doughnut hole
Thieves burglarized a doughnut franchise on Flatbush Avenue on Oct. 2.
The worker who reported the crime said he left the store at 2:30 am and returned at 6:30 am — a schedule that even exceeded the company’s famously fatiguing routine of making the donuts that was popularized in commercials in the late 1980s.
This always-awake employee told police that when he returned to the shop between Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue, he noticed that the prowler had removed a ceiling panel, which allowed him to make off with $1,000 and the store’s safe.
— Mike McLaughlin
