Police Beat

What's your number? What's your other one?

Posted

One thief found himself extremely well-connected after hitting the cell phone jackpot in a van behind the Foodtown at 5555 Broadway.

The van’s driver stepped away from his vehicle at around 7 a.m., on June 5. While he was making a delivery to the supermarket. A lucky passerby found the door unlocked, then made quick work to pocket an iPhone 11 Pro, $200 in cash, and a Samsung Galaxy 8 cell phone, police said. All told, more than $2,000 worth of cash and merchandise was taken.

Police are still looking for the sticky-fingered caller.

Pushing your luck at the precinct

Petty thievery is common in this part of the Bronx, with wallets and cell phones going missing from vehicles on a regular basis. One particular man pushed his luck a little too far, however.

After two arrests for breaking into cars, the thief decided June 9 was his lucky day, according to police. That afternoon, the man reportedly walked up to a car at the corner of Broadway and West 236th Street, steps from the 50th Precinct, breaking the front and back passenger-side windows of a police officer’s personal vehicle.

He then attempted to steal his uniform.

He was quickly caught by another officer, according to police, yet had what he thought was the perfect excuse: “I’m working here, I know the sergeant.”

It was quite clear to the officer that he did not, in fact, know the sergeant.

The man had previously been arrested for grand larceny after stealing an iPhone, an amplifier, multiple phone chargers, and car maintenance supplies, police said. All together those were valued at nearly $2,000.

Missing: one wallet, forcibly taken

Everyone knows not to keep your wallet hanging out of your pocket, but sometimes the best precautions aren’t quite enough.

That was the case on May 18, when a man walking on the 3200 block of Cambridge Avenue was suddenly shoved to the ground and his wallet stolen, police said. The wallet-snatcher and a friend punched the victim, causing what investigators called “substantial pain and bruising.”

The two then ran toward Broadway, but it was there their luck quickly ran out. Police found the alleged thieves and the missing wallet, arresting one of the men for the robbery.

 

Someone might need to go to confession

Robbing a church is pretty low, but breaking into the elementary school attached to the church? That might be an even worse sin.

On the morning of Sunday, June 7, police received a call that someone broke into St. Margaret of Cortona School at 452 W. 260th St., entering through an open window and wandering around the building.

It was unclear what the thieves had attempted to take, or what they had been successful in stealing, police said. But two people — a 23-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man — were arrested in connection with the burglary.

 

Cash registers for employees only

It was the middle of the night of June 8 when someone shattered the glass door of the Foodtown at 5555 Broadway and made their way over to cash register number six.

The would-be money-grabber struggled with the register but couldn’t get it open, police said, and decided to try again at the customer service desk. Once again, no luck — and no cash.

The perpetrator, who police estimate to be around 18 years old, walked outside the store in an all-white jogging suit, hopped on his bike, and rode into the night. No arrests have been made, and the case remains open to the detective squad.

Back at it again with a stolen Accord

One driver parked her white Honda Accord on the 200 block of West 254th Street on June 10, police said, and left it there for several hours. When she returned at around 10 p.m., the car had vanished.

There were no signs of forced entry in the area where the car had been, police said, and no shattered glass to indicate broken windows. Yet the car was gone nonetheless.

The victim valued the vehicle at $35,000. There were no witnesses and no camera footage of the theft, so police are flying blind in attempts to find the car.

50th Precinct, Police Beat, Kirstyn Brendlen