POLICE BEAT

Keep it cool, young men, keep it cool

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A group of roving teenagers got violent on the evening of March 1, allegedly shoving a 61-year-old man to the ground near the corner of Broadway and Exterior Street.

Four people — all described as being about 13 years old — reportedly attacked the man around 9 p.m. They then kicked him, stealing $200 in cash before running south on Exterior toward West 225th Street.

The man suffered lacerations to his hands and face, according to police, but refused medical assistance. Officers canvassed the area but found no evidence of the perpetrators, and no camera footage of the crime was captured.

Frozen temperatures, frozen accounts

An 86-year-old woman had a nasty surprise when she tried to get some cash at an ATM on Feb. 28, finding her bank account had been locked.

She couldn’t understand what happened. But after reaching out to police, she discovered that a check she slipped into a mailbox to pay her credit card bill a few days before never arrived at its destination.

Instead, someone swiped the check from the mailbox, wiped it clean, and changed the amount to more than $12,000, police said. The check stealer then tried to deposit this cash windfall into their own account.

It’s not clear to police if the attempt to cash the forged check was successful, but they are investigating. 

Milk carton car

A car parked at the 4600 block of Henry Hudson Parkway appeared to have hopped onto the nearest exit and driven itself away on Feb. 27.

At least that must be what the car’s owner felt like when she returned to her parking spot to find that the blue 2015 Honda CR-V was gone without a trace, leaving her without a car — or a clue.

Lock your Hondas

A man parked his 2018 Honda sedan the afternoon of March 3 on Lakeview Place, a quiet street next to Van Cortlandt Park. But while horses and sports players frolicked nearby, someone broke into the car and drove it away from its quiet parking spot.

Police said there was no sign of what had happened — no broken glass or tire marks, and a search of the area didn’t turn up any hints to the car’s whereabouts. 

The owner estimates the vehicle was worth about $21,000.

Getting creative with car parts

Hondas are popular, and most of their parts are interchangeable, so tires and other parts are popular on the black market.

One thief went for something a little less common during the late morning of March 11, leading to a business owner finding something peculiar about his parked work vehicle on the 2500 block of Johnson Avenue. The car was still there. The tires were still on. No windows were broken. But, to his directional dismay, both side mirrors had been removed.

According to police, the mirrors were worth about $500 combined.

If you can’t afford that new iPhone …

A Netherland Avenue man was dismayed by a recent call from AT&T. It wasn’t because his bill was too high or his service was too slow, but because the phone carrier was lettings him know someone may have stolen his identity.

Apparently, someone used the man’s Social Security number to buy an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a whopping 64 gigabytes of memory. 

The fancy phone was valued at just over $1,000, and the happy owner is still unknown.

Police Beat, Kirstyn Brendlen