Police Beat

August 18, 2016 crime round-up

Posted
1.
5670 Riverdale Ave.
Bronx, NY
2.
5909 Riverdale Ave.
Bronx, NY
3.
2865 University Ave.
Bronx, NY
4.
88 W. 197th St.
Bronx, NY
5.
251 W. 261st St
Bronx, NY

Burglars hit Riverdale Avenue

A pair of similar, though bizarre, burglaries occurred this weekend on Riverdale Avenue between W. 259th and 260th streets.

1. In the first case, upstairs neighbors of a Subway restaurant at 5670 Riverdale Ave. observed two men, who residents said looked suspicious, standing outside the storefront at about 30 minutes past midnight on Aug. 9. 

One of the men picked up a rock from a sidewalk, and neighbors heard a loud bang, prompting them to call the police. Residents could not describe the men, police said. When officers arrived, they found a rock beside a smashed front window and $1000 missing from the cash register, police said. 

 

2. In the second case, police said a Verizon Wireless store one block north was burglarized in the same fashion on Sunday. 

Video surveillance showed a man standing in front of the storefront and throwing a rock through the window and then removing electronics from the store, police said. The number and estimated value of the devices remains uncertain, police said. 

The same Verizon store was burglarized in late June, when five men allegedly broke in and carried out a safe, which cracked open on Riverdale Avenue.

Both stores had been robbed in late 2015, when a man hit six stores in one week before being arrested by police who found a hoax bomb device in his apartment.

Both of the latest cases are open to investigation.

 

Thefts and robberies

3.In an attack reminiscent of a series of robberies of Chinese-food delivery people in April, another deliveryman was robbed on Aug. 10, police said. 

The man was at 2865 University Ave., when the perpetrator called him up to the second floor, and robbed the worker of $75, police said.

In the April case, police arrested a group of teens for targeting delivery people from Foo-Hing Kitchen. The latest robbery in August occurred only a few blocks away from the restaurant and the victim was a 32-year-old Asian man, although a police spokeswoman said she was not sure the man worked at Foo-Hing.

 

4.In another case, a man was pick-pocketed inside his apartment building at 88 W. 197th St., police said. 

They said the victim, a 31-year-old man, was walking to work at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, when someone approached him and asked for a lighter.  Having none, the victim walked with the perpetrator to his apartment, when the unknown man patted the victim on his back and chest, stealing his wallet in the process.

Both of these cases are open to detectives.

 

Car almost stolen

5.Two teens were arrested when an employee of Special Citizens Future United spotted them getting inside the organization’s Ford van parked on the property, police said. 

The man who reported the alleged crime saw the teens enter the parking lot at 251 W. 261st St. and get into the white Ford Econoline.

When the man approached and shouted at them, they fled into a neighboring lot and then jumped into a Kia Sonata and tried to drive off, but police arrived on scene and arrested the minors.

 

This case is closed due to arrest.

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