Results tagged “robbery”

Three men shot a 64-year-old in Queens in an attempt to steal his new flatscreen television on Black Friday — but the 47-inch TV wouldn't fit in their escape vehicle.

[UPDATE BELOW] It's so important to diversify your portfolio. With a police sketch of his likeness taped to brownstone stoops throughout the West Village, the fake deliveryman suspected in a string of home invasion robberies has apparently taken his act back uptown. Yesterday afternoon, a nanny entering a West 81st Street apartment with a 5-month-old boy was followed into the building by the suspect, who was carrying a pile of packages. Once inside, he brandished a knife and forced his way into the apartment.

Last Thursday night, a fake UPS deliveryman bound a nanny and robbed a West Village brownstone. The Post reports that a 50-something white male, pretending to be a UPS worker, first asked the nanny to sign for a fake package and then placed a sharp object against the back of her head, forcing her into the apartment. He tied her up (but not the 3-year-old charge) and took a MacBook, Apple TV, cable modem, camera and $40. When leaving, he told the nanny she could untie herself in 10 minutes. Police are investigating whether this home invasion is connected to an earlier break-in at an apartment on 9th near 5th Avenue.

This video is the greatest demonstration of someone "flipping it" on an adversary that we've seen in some time. Long Island convenience store and gas-station clerk Mustapha Yakupoglu was closing up at midnight Wednesday night when two masked men burst in and pointed a shotgun at his neck, demanding money. But Yakupoglu, who's been robbed twice before, wasn't having it. Check out this deft maneuver, caught by a surveillance camera:

Ronald Tackman, the man who escaped from custody at Criminal Court thanks to his nice suit, was captured last night at 175th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights. A tipster told cops that he was taking a city bus and they were there to arrest him.

The day after actress Kirsten Dunst testified about the dastardly theft of her purse from her Soho Grand hotel room back in 2007, the man accused of swiping the Balenciaga purse took the stand. The Post reports that James Jimenez tried "to convince a jury that his buddy told him it was OK to go up to Dunst's empty penthouse suite" and "claimed he had no idea Dunst's purse was inside the white shopping bag that the same buddy gave him to carry out of the hotel." He even said it was a favor for the pal's mom, but the prosecutor asked, "At four in the morning?"

An ex-con who is suspected of robbing over a dozen homes throughout the East Village and Lower East Side was feeling so cocky while hanging out inside the East 10th Street apartment he was hitting up that he decided to have a little shirts-off time and take a snooze. When the super of the building found his cellphone and t-shirt behind, cops were able to use DNA testing on the shirt to nail 45-year-old Ramon Pacheco. One police source said Pacheco would use acrobatics to get inside hard-to-reach spots in apartments, taking "laptops, iPods and cameras," telling the Post, "He's kind of like a Spider-Man. Sometimes he's kicking in windows. Sometimes he's going through skylights. One time, he kicked in an air conditioner and crawled inside the apartment."

Police have arrested three young women who are accused of scamming up to 50 men that they would lure from nightclubs by offering a ride, only to steal their ATM pins and later rob them. 21-year-olds Tiffany Rasberry and Subhanna Beyah and 22-year-old Barbara Labady were eventually caught after a run-in with an attorney they spotted smoking a cigarette outside the West Village hotspot Lotus on West 14th Street. The "powerhouse lawyer" says, "They drove up in a car with the windows down and said, 'Let's go to a party. Would you like to come with us?' They flirted with him as he took money out at the ATM and then went on to hit up his account half an hour later for $1,600. Another incident scored them $5,000 and they also swiped Blackberries and wallets while having men in the car. The Post refers to the trio as "sexy scammers" and "seductive suspects" and talks to a detective who says they claimed to turn to the scam "as an alternative to turning tricks." According to the Facebook account of Tiffany Rasberry (pictured), she is a 2006 graduate of the Connecticut boarding school Miss Porter's.

Last night, a man was fatally shot in the head while his father was beaten during an apparent home invasion attempt on North Conduit Avenue in Queens. According to the Daily News, Romeo Antoniello was taking a large amount of cash home from his pizzeria, Romeo's—and the robbers were waiting for him. A police source said, "There was a scuffle at the door and the father was hit in the head, a police source said. "The son comes from inside and tries to help the father. He gets shot in the head." Antoniello was beaten while his 29-year-old son Gerardo died from his wounds at Jamaica Medical Center. A neighbor mourned and worried, "Down-to-earth, honest, hard-working -- great people to have in the neighborhood... I'm in fear for my own life now. If they can push people into their own homes, what's to keep them from coming to where I live?" Police are searching for the two suspects, who were masked.

Police shot a gun-wielding robbery suspect in Brooklyn last night, at Howard Ave. and Marion St. According to 1010WINS, "Police say officers were canvassing the neighborhood after a report that two men -- one armed with a handgun -- had just tried to rob a 15-year-old...the officers spotted a man fitting the description and armed with a Glock 10 millimeter handgun." A police source tells the Daily News that cops told the suspect to drop his gun but the suspect "turned with the gun, and the cop shot him." Another witness said, "The cops started chasing him down the block. The cop was shouting, 'Stop or I'm going to shoot!' He tripped and fell. He was getting up. The cop shot him." The suspected robber is in critical condition at Kings County Hospital while the other suspect is at large.

A man who was wrongly jailed on Rikers Island for 17 months has accepted a $145,000 settlement with the city because a detective misidentified his fingerprints. Dwight Gomas was residing in Atlanta in 2004 when he was suddenly arrested by U.S. marshals for an armed robbery at a Howard Beach jewelry store. Detective Eileen Barrett had matched a partial finger print from the crime scene to Gomas, whose prints were on file after his only prior arrest as an adult: driving with a suspended license in Brooklyn. Gomas maintained his innocence before a grand jury, but was indicted and couldn't make bail. Languishing on Rikers, his Legal Aid lawyer urged him to accept a plea offer of five years in prison, but he refused. Luckily, veteran detective Daniel Perruzzaa finally conducted a routine review of the fingerprints. He tells the Daily News, "When I looked at it, I said, 'You know what? This is a screwup; this is not his fingerprints." Oopsy! Gomas was released after 523 days in jail, but by then his girlfriend and their child moved in with another man. On the plus side, he pulled in $145K in less than two years on Rikers, so we're sure there's no hard feelings.

Former rookie NYC transit officer Christian Torres has pleaded guilty to twice robbing a Sovereign branch on the Lower East Side in 2007. The robberies netted $116,000 and were almost completely successful, thanks in part to his 20-year-old girlfriend Christina Dasrath, who worked as a teller at the bank. (She still claims Torres tricked her into helping him, and describes him as her first love.) Torres, 23, only got busted for those jobs when cops pulled him over after robbing $113,000 from a Sovereign branch in Pennsylvania last April. Dasrath is currently serving a two and a half year sentence, and Torres is doing a ten year bid in the Keystone State. While pleading guilty yesterday, Torres blamed the crime spree on the low salaries allotted rookie cops.

Yesterday morning, the two toll booths on the NJ Turnpike were robbed, prompting NJ Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando to call them "the stupidest criminals in history." Why? Because the booths at Exits 15X and 16E are little used and don't have that much cash anyway. In fact, a toll collector's 8-hour shift at 15X usually only nets $200-$300. Spokesman Joe Orlando said, "This definitely wasn't a plot for 'Ocean's 11.'" The Star-Ledger reports that the robbers, in three different vehicles, "disguised their faces with bandannas and dark sunglasses and flashed guns at toll takers." The robbers used a white Nissan and dark Jeep to rob Exit 16E and the Jeep and a Mercedes—which had been carjacked an hour earlier—to hit 15X. The Turnpike Authority expects to find the criminals, as the 10 individuals who previously robbed the NJTA have all been captured.

It couldn't have been scripted better: A cute receptionist helps catch a career criminal—thanks to her deep love for Law & Order: SVU—and then appears on the Today Show and gets props from Detective Olivia Benson herself!

It's a story that Dick Wolf would approve of: A receptionist helped the cops catch a career criminal by setting aside a paper cup he used—all thanks to the armchair detective knowledge she acquired from watching crime dramas like Law & Order: SVU! Of course, the cops initially declined to take evidence—Detective Eliot Stabler would totally rage out about that.

After Harlem store owner Charles "Gus" Augusto shot at armed robbers who were pistol-whipping his employee, killing two of the suspects, the 72-year-old (pictured) lamented, saying, "I would have been happy if they'd all run out the door. I'm sick to my stomach over it," and "This is terrible. This is really awful." The NY Times revisited some store owners who have similar feelings: "A few owners said the shootings in their pasts, even those from decades ago, were still too painful to talk about. One, who would speak only anonymously, said, 'I’ve been trying to forget about this since it happened.'" But one, Youssouf Drame, was open about not regretting his decision. Last fall, Drame managed to wrest away a gun from robbers at his electronics store in Brooklyn (the robbers pistol-whipped one of Drame's employees) and killed two of the four robbers. He was shot seven times and showed the Times his scars, saying if he was confronted again, "I’d do worse...I worked so hard, and they wanted to take what is mine." And of the Harlem shooting at Augusto's store, Drame said, "How are you going to rob an old man like that?"

Police are investigating whether a robbery in the town of Patchogue over the weekend was another instance of a hate crime in the town where an Ecuadorian immigrant was allegedly murdered by a group of teenagers last November. The Hispanic man was walking on a street in the Long Island town just before midnight on Friday night when he was approached by three young white men. As they knocked him to the ground while stealing cash and other items, police say that "disparaging remarks were made about the victim's ancestry." Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri told reporters, "It's distressing that it happened at all. Who knows why and who knows the circumstances? I don't know yet." After a group of teens were charged in the beating death of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero (pictured), the Justice Department launched an investigation into accusations that Hispanic immigrants were being terrorized in the town for months. Some said that the victims' pleas had originally fallen on deaf ears with Suffolk County police.

Yesterday morning, hours after he stared down four armed robbers, begged them to leave, and then fired at them when they started pistolwhipping one of his employees—ultimately killing two of the suspects and injuring the other two—Charles "Gus" Augusto was back at his West 125th restaurant supply store and repeatedly stated he was unhappy that he had to resort to violence. The Daily News got the first interview, and the other papers and news stations followed—the 72-year-old told NY1, "I did the only thing I could do at that time. Tried as long as I could not to, tried to get out of it; they wouldn't let me get out of it," while saying to the Post, "I did what I had to do. It wasn't my choice; it was their choice."

According to Newsday, "a robbery of cash and marijuana in Oceanside Friday developed into a melee involving four, police said, when the initial victim apparently tried to strike back by stealing an iPod." Seriously! Here's how it unraveled: Christopher Cagno, 20, allegedly demanded $160 cash and pot from Dylan Peitz, 18, on a street. Cagno managed to take the items and was fleeing in friend Christopher Haig's car—but the car was moving so slowly that "Peitz jumped partially through a window, grabbed Haig's iPod and tried to run." Naturally, Cagno and Haig chased Peitz and a fight broke out. Enter Peitz's girlfriend, Alyssa Reilly, 19, who introduced a knife and slashed at Cagno and Haig. All were arrested and charged with assault—Reilly faces additional charges of possession of a deadly weapon (the knife), Cagno has additional charges of robbery (the cash and pot) and drug possession (the pot) and Peitz has additional charges of petty larceny (the iPod theft) and possession of a deadly weapon (maybe the knife?). The four will be arraigned today in Hempstead.

This morning, not even a day after shooting four would-be robbers—killing two of them— who stormed into his West 125th Street restaurant supply store, Charles (Gus) Augusto was back at work. The Daily News saw the 72-year-old open Blue Flame's doors at 7:45 a.m.; Augusto told the News, "I haven't done anything wrong. I'm sitting here minding my own business and they come in with guns...I don't feel like a hero. I would have felt like a hero if I could have talked that kid into going home."

Last week, a 22-year-old Pratt student was robbed and brutally beaten at Grand and Lexington Avenues in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill section. Eddy Sanchez had been walking towards to the Pratt campus around 10 p.m. last Tuesday night when, WCBS 2 reports, five teens surrounded him—"They demanded money, and when Sanchez initially refused, the suspects punched and kicked him into submission, and took what they wanted." The Daily News adds that one teen used a crowbar to beat him when he tried to fight back. Now Sanchez is in a coma at Kings County Hospital.

Friday morning a Port Authority cop faced off against a group of nine gang members aboard the PATH and took them all down without having to step off the train. Officer John Roche was fetched down while aboard a PATH train in Jersey City by 37-year-old Shine-Amon Sky around 6 a.m. Friday. Sky had woken up after dozing off during his morning commute to find one of the young Bloods nearby had stolen his cigarettes. The large group of teens and young adults then pounced on Sky when he confronted them about it. When Officer Roche tracked down the gang and saw how poorly his odds looked against so many of them, he ordered the train conductor to lock down the train just past the Grove Street stop as he waited for backup. Once his fellow officers arrived, they were able to round up all nine of the Newark gangbangers, who were charged with everything from riot and disorderly conduct to recruitment of a street gang. Two of the female teenagers were also hit with making terrorist threat when they said that they would kill Roche as he apprehended them.

Police suspect that robbery is the main motive in the murder of Felix Brinkmann, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who was found beaten and bound in his Upper East Side apartment on Thursday night. Brinkmann's apartment was ransacked and a man and a woman left his building's garage in a Honda Civic belonging to the victim. The car, with the license plate "FELIX B," was found abandoned in the Bronx last night.

Dun dun dun duuuuun: composer Philip Glass recently came home to find his apartment had been broken in to. While someone took the time to shatter a window to get in, the only thing that was taken was a cell phone. The Villager reports that his 2nd Avenue home is just around the corner from the 3rd Street Men's Shelter, where it's suspected the thief resides. The paper notes a broader issues with the shelter, saying that muggings, car break-ins and drugs are becoming more rampant problems in the area. One community board member, Elinor Tatum, was recently at the Marble Collegiate Cemetery and "was shocked to see all the 40-ounce beer and vodka bottles littering the graveyard, which she is sure were tossed out of the shelter’s windows." She told the paper: “I don’t want to see it going back to the way it was in the late ’80s.”

You know that ATM scam where four friends from NYU were busted for repeatedly claiming their ATM cards were stolen when they were actually taking in $422,000? Well, the Post reports that it went on for so long (between 2003 and 2008) "because bank officials thought it was easier to just pay up, according to one of the investigators who helped break the case." Former NYPD detective Harry Houck Jr. says that he questioned one of the suspects, John Tluczek, who claimed his ATM card was stolen and account looted—Tluczek's excuse: "I was planning to go on vacation, and I had a piece of paper in my car that had all my PINs written down. I just left it in my car." Houck was suspicious and found out that Tluczek wasn't even on vacation! "But Houck said that when he called other banks to ask them about Tluczek, they had also heard of him, but decided to just pay him off rather than fight. The banks paid because Tluczek and his cohorts were taking advantage of a part of federal banking law that allows people to get money back within 10 days if their ATM cards are stolen and used to make withdrawals." Investigators think Tluczek and his cohorts' haul could tally up to $1 million.

Yesterday, the MTA asked for the public's help is finding a trio of men who managed to steal $120,000 worth of jewelry from two salesmen traveling through Grand Central Terminal. According to the Post, "The ruse involved one con man following a salesman for hours on the day of the crime, tailing him for miles on his regular route from Chinatown to Midtown. Once at Grand Central, the thieves used two distractions to swap one of the jewel-laden bags with one of equal heft and appearance." Yes, just like in the movies! Here's how the MTA describes the diversion: "MTA Police believe that on the lower level of the Terminal at about 6 p.m. on June 24, the jewelry company employees were transporting about 800 pieces of gold and diamond jewelry including rings, neck chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants, and about $2,000 in cash, in a black duffel bag. The employee with possession of the bag set it down momentarily to discard some garbage..."

Hoping to back up her brother's claim that he killed a motivational speaker to help him commit suicide, Kenneth Minor's sister Susan tells the Daily News, "This man, Locker, came to Harlem looking for a person to take him out. This man was asking everyone in Harlem to kill him."

Last night, police shot and killed a robbery suspect who they had been following on a wild chase that also left bystanders and police officers injured. A pedestrian told police that people in a car had just robbed him—of $1,200 cash—at West 177th near the West Side Highway. Police then chased the silver Cadillac throughout Washington Heights. According to WCBS 2, "The Cadillac struck a motorcycle rider, and the motorcycle got stuck under the car and was dragged. The Cadillac reversed, trying to dislodge the motorcycle, and hit a pedestrian." The cops came on the scene, identified themselves and then fired (one of the suspects may have had a gun). One of the suspects was shot dead while the three others were taken into custody. The Daily News reports, "Investigators said no weapon was found on the dead man, but noted that the weapon might have been tossed during the chase or hidden somewhere in the car. They were awaiting a search warrant Thursday morning."

Police have made the first in what they hope will be a series of arrests connected to the murder of Long Island motivational speaker Jeff Locker. 36-year-old Kenneth Minor has been charged with second-degree murder after being identified as one of two people seen on ATM surveillance video while taking out money from Locker's account. The News says Minor can be seen "checking his face for blood splatters in the ATM reflection." Minor, who has a rap sheet dating back to 1991 on drug and robbery charges, admitted to cops that he was on the scene while Locker was stabbed with a screwdriver while parked in his car in East Harlem, but claimed that he was only assisting the North Woodmere father of two in committing suicide so that Locker's family could collect insurance. Police dismiss that notion and say they are now looking for the prostitute who appears to have set up Locker's murder. The News says that Locker was involved in seeing that woman during "a series of Wednesday night trysts."

He's confessed to participating in a string of armed robberies in Queens, but the young model who made headlines because of his adolescent affair with a 37-year-old teacher insists there's no reason he can't go from perp-walking to cat-walking. Joshua Walter, now 20, seemed to be in denial when a Post reporter visited him at the Vernon C. Bain jail barge moored off The Bronx, where he's being held in lieu of $550,000 bail. After first telling the reporter, "I got nothing to say to you," he took the tabloid's bait when pressed about his modeling career, asking, "What do you mean? What happened? I still am modeling." Walter, along with three others, faces robbery and weapon-possession charges in connection with the June 14th through July 12th crime spree. And in May, Walter pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for punching and choking his older lover, former teacher Gina Salamino. As for his career, one modeling industry publicist tells the Post, "I wouldn't count him out, but a lot will depend on how he reacts and what he does now that he's in trouble. America loves a great comeback story." True, but America loves a great thieving thug goes to prison story, too.