Car stolen after keys left behind in ignition

Two perps found the keys to the kingdom on May 26 — or in this case, a 1999 Toyota Siena — dangling in the ignition after the driver left the minivan running.

The victim, a 65-year-old man, told police that two passengers exited the vehicle when he stopped at their location on the northwest corner of Sedgwick Avenue and West Kingsbridge Road around 6:30 a.m. 

They didn’t go to far, however, because when the driver momentarily stepped out of the car himself with the keys still in it, the passengers took the minivan out for a spin.

The victim described one of the joyriders as wearing a blue sweatshirt and sporting curly hair. He couldn’t describe his accomplice.

The vehicle was recovered two days later  near Washington Heights, just after 4 a.m., allegedly still in possession of the two thieves. Both were charged with grand larceny.

Bad takeout

What was a routine takeout delivery turned into a nightmare for a 24-year-old man.

The victim was delivering food to an apartment on Webb Avenue at 10:30 p.m., when he was attacked. 

When the deliveryman knocked on the door, no one answered. So he headed back downstairs to the main lobby where the attacker was waiting for him. The suspect, later identified as a 20-year-old man, punched the victim on the side of the head and pushed him to the ground.

The deliveryman dropped the food and tried to take a photo of his attacker with his cellphone, but he instead retreated upstairs when the attacker came after him, according to police. 

After calling his boss to come help him, the victim finally left the building and called 911. The attacker picked up the food without paying and went back upstairs, police said. 

The man was arrested and charged with robbery. The deliveryman reportedly suffered redness and discomfort from his injuries.

Gas station cries ‘camera!’

An employee scared off a man attempting to rob the cash register by telling him there were cameras recording in the store. 

The incident, which unfolded at a Sunoco gas station on Riverdale Avenue, happened at midnight May 28. 

The victim, a 45-year-old man, told police the perpetrator pointed a BB gun at his chest and grabbed his hand demanding he open the cash register. Police described him as a man in his mid-20s to early 30s, standing at 5-foot-4, and of a medium build. 

Break-in but no burglary 

A 69-year-old woman was sitting in her home on Marble Hill Avenue at 2 p.m., on May 22 when a man reportedly broke into her apartment by climbing through an unlocked window.

The would-be burglar was temporarily blocked by a window screen, but managed to kick it in to get inside.  

Oddly, all that effort resulted in nothing as the man fled through the fire escape without taking anything from the apartment.