Drivers: Beware of rogue passengers

Maintaining an Uber or taxicab is hard enough in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, with many drivers around the city stapling up plastic sheet barriers to keep them safe from their passenger’s germs.

For one cab driver, however, that plastic wasn’t quite enough protection.

Just before 6 p.m., on July 6, the cabbie dropped off his passenger on the corner of West 195th Street and Sedgwick Avenue, after picking him up in Manhattan. The passenger got out without paying, police said, then turned back to the driver and demanded money while flashing him a black revolver.

The driver refused, and the man ran east on West 195th Street, police said, leaving him physically unharmed.

Police are on the lookout for a Black man, about 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, wearing a dark blue baseball cap and black sweatpants.

Lock up your windows

Waking up in the middle of the night to find someone standing over you is a common horror movie trope — but sometimes these home invaders are not interested in finding you at all.

Early on the morning of July 10, police say someone slipped into a house on the 3400 block of Arlington Avenue through a basement window, which may have been left open. Once inside, this person filled their bags with $1,400 worth of stolen goods, including an Apple iPad, and slipped back out without seeing a soul.

There were no cameras in the home, so the late-night thief’s identity is unknown.

Shouldn’t have taken the train

If a car window is shattered on the street, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Maybe not, since someone was successfully able to get into a car parked on Edsall Avenue near the Spuyten Duyvil train station on July 5.

The car was parked on the shaded street from about 7:40 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., police said. But when the owner returned, he found the front passenger-side window broken, and about $150 worth of his belongings gone.

Police are investigating.

Take your valuables inside

It was the wrong night to leave important possessions inside a parked car along Kappock Street.

The car was left the evening of June 20, and looked quite different when the owner returned the following day. Both rear windows of the 2009 Nissan Xterra were smashed and quite a stash had been stolen from the backseat, including an external computer hard drive, a 27-inch Acer computer monitor, three pieces of luggage, and an orange raincoat. Police valued the loot at more than $600.

While many parts of Kappock have cameras, police say no footage of this particular theft has surfaced, so the investigation is ongoing.