Elmhurst-Jackson Heights cell phone thief on the loose

From PIX11:

Police are searching for an elusive thief who travels by bike and has stolen 11 cellphones over the past month.

Don't be a victim

From DNA Info:

Thieves are targeting mothers shopping at the Rego Center Mall and stealing things they leave on top of their strollers as they walk around stores, police said.

At least two such cases have been recently reported, including one at Marshalls, according to Judith Harrison, the commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, which covers Forest Hills and Rego Park.

“This is particularly important because the holiday season is coming,” Harrison said at a community council meeting earlier this week.

Harrison said the suspects wait for the victims to leave strollers.

“They are walking away from their purses and they are walking away from the child that is sitting in that stroller,” she said.

Spike in tire & rim thefts in Kew Gardens

From DNA Info:

Thieves have gone on a spree in Kew Gardens, snapping up rims and tires from 15 cars so far this year and prompting a local precinct to distribute fliers in an effort to put the brakes on the trend.

Most of the cars — largely imports — were left on cinder blocks, but in some instances, sources said, vehicles were placed on tree limbs.

Officers from the 102nd Precinct, which covers Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park, have been leaving leaflets on car windshields, informing vehicle owners about the rash of thefts.

“Lately there has been an increase in rims and tires being stolen from late model Honda Accords and Nissan Maximas, Infinitis, and Acuras within the 102 Precinct," although other car models have also been targeted, the flier says.

This year, there have been 33 rim and tire thefts in the 102nd Precinct as of Aug. 21, nearly half of them in Kew Gardens, according to the precinct.

In June, five such incidents occurred in Kew Gardens within a period of one week.

Even paper has street value

From the NY Post:

City sanitation cops are following a paper trail to bust a new breed of thieves.

Sly scrap bandits have taken to swiping bags of paper and cardboard left on curbs for the city’s Sanitation Department, following a dramatic rise in the value of the recyclable material, officials said.

Mixed paper has more than doubled in price over the past two years, going from around $40 a ton to as high as $120.

That huge price increase has been fueled by dwindling amounts of paper ending up in the recycling bin, as consumers switch to electronic forms of communication.

“When you approach this value, it becomes a market for unsavory characters,” said Hank Levin, whose Pratt Industries on Staten Island handles half the city’s curb-side paper pickup.

“[Thieves] can take a couple of tons off of the street in a night and get about $250.”

Cops with the city’s Department of Sanitation this year have already impounded 49 vehicles — mostly vans and small, rented moving trucks — for allegedly being used to pilfer bags of mixed paper off the streets.

That’s up from last year, when only 40 vehicles were impounded for similar crimes over 12 months.

Cell phone thief busted

From Bayside Patch:

The suspected crook recognized by his copper colored sneakers was allegedly caught red handed last week.

The alleged mugger with a fondness for Blackberries and iPhones was observed by watchful cops robbing teens of their phones on a handball court at the corner of 190th Street and Underhill Ave. in Fresh Meadows.

Over the past several months, Eric Colvin allegedly jacked phones from 14 victims from Brooklyn and Queens.

His story was always the same. He would allegedly tell victims that his sister’s phone was missing before making away with the phone by threatening to pull out a gun, which he never brandished.

According to a police source, Colvin was recognized by the tattoos on his neck depicted in a police sketch and his trademark Nike foam sneakers in copper.

Shady contractor busted

From Douglaston Patch:

A 59-year-old Long Island man has been accused of bilking six Queens residents, who paid the defendant more than $500,000 to make repairs to their homes, the Queens district attorney said.

Wayne T. Drinkwine, 59, of St. James, L.I., was arraigned Aug. 19 before Queens Criminal Court Judge Gene Lopez on charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal mischief, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

He had been indicted on similar charges the day before by a Queens Supreme Court grand jury, but more counts were then added. The case will be tried in the Supreme Court, a DA spokesman said.

The defendant, who also goes by the name Duke Russo, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, the DA said.

“The victims in this case, it is alleged, hired the defendant in some instances more than three years ago and paid him considerable amounts of money to remodel their residences,” Brown said. “Instead, it is alleged that he began demolition work on their properties and then took the money and ran.”

Thefts up at JFK

From the NY Post:

It's been a great year so far for criminals at Kennedy Airport -- they're doing more business than ever and rarely getting caught, The Post has learned.

Larcenies are up nearly 30 percent from the first half of 2010 -- and the arrest rate is a pathetic 9 percent. The 299 complaints filed this year have led to only 28 arrests.

Included in the figures are thefts from baggage carousels, swiped property left unattended, and thefts by baggage handlers and TSA employees. Not included are picked pockets, thefts from cars in airport lots and shoplifting. The most frequently stolen items are laptops and iPads.

And the problem may be more serious than even the statistics show.

Port Authority Police bosses, a source said, pressure cops to downgrade the value of stolen property so thefts can be filed as petit rather than grand larcenies, one of seven crimes that get reported to the FBI.

Where's the stolen loot?

From the Daily News:

The day disgraced Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin pleaded guilty to an astonishing array of corruption charges, he promised to pay back everybody he stole from - including a Queens Little League team.

That was two years ago.

Yet none of his victims - who are owed more than $845,000 - have been repaid.

That means $90,085 that should be sitting in the Electchester Athletic Association's Little League coffers isn't yet there.

"Any money that would go to the kids would be appreciated," Peggy Hackett, a team coach, said last week.

The team's lawyer said he has yet to receive a response to several letters sent to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office is responsible for doling out the cash.

"There's not been even a clue as to what's happening with the claim," lawyer Norman Rothfeld said.

Rothfeld said he's also trying to find out what happened to the $276,383 McLaughlin was ordered to repay the electrical workers union. McLaughlin also still owes $268,821 to the NY Central Labor Council, $32,274 to the state Assembly, $19,475 to a Queens political club and $153,939 to Welsbach Electric of College Point.

Citytime scandal just keeps getting worse

From CBS New York:

Authorities now estimate more than $600 million that New York City paid for the “CityTime“‘ automated payroll project was directly or indirectly tainted.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says it is truly jaw dropping. Prosecutors had previously put the figure at about $85 million.

“Unfortunately, in just a few months since the first announcement of arrests, we have developed evidence that the corruption on CityTime was epic in duration, magnitude and scope,” Bharara said on Monday.

The new estimate came as federal prosecutors and the New York City Department of Investigation announced more charges in the case.

The indictment names a Wayne, N.J.-based subcontractor, TechnoDyne LLC, and its owners. Prosecutors say they believe Padma and Reddy Allen have fled to their native India. Efforts to reach them for comment through online messages were unsuccessful.

Sex offender also stole church funds

From the Queens Gazette:

A convicted child sex offender banned from an afterschool program at St. Mel’s Catholic School in Whitestone is facing new charges that he swiped a church checkbook and cashed checks totaling more than $7,000, authorities said.

Joseph Denice, 24, a registered N.Y. State Sex Offender, was removed from St. Mel’s after parents and lawmakers in Eastern Queens discovered he was working with young children at an afterschool program at the school.

Shortly after his dismissal, church officials received a phone call from a CapitalOne Bank branch advising them that a checking account was overdrawn.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the Queens District Attorney’s office, Denice admitted to investigators that he found checks on a desk in the church Religious Education Office in December and signed several over to an account held by his parents.

Bank officials said Denice wrote checks through the month of December totaling $7,707, the complaint states. Following his arrest last week, Denice said his mother had no knowledge of the scam and she believed she was depositing Denice’s paychecks, the complaint states.

Denice, a Level 1 N.Y. State Sex Offender, is facing grand larceny and related charges for the theft of church funds.

Bedlam in Bayside

From 1010WINS:

Police said three men were breaking into cars parked at the Adria Hotel on Northern Blvd. when a witness called 911.

A police helicopter circled overhead in Bayside, Queens as cops on the ground scoured the neighborhood looking for the suspects. The witness, who didn’t want his name used, spoke to 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria.

“I heard noises, looked through the fence, saw guys breaking into the car, went upstairs and made [the] 911 call,” he said, “And then police came and all hell broke loose.”

Two suspects tried to get away on foot and one tried to flee in a green van that had been stolen earlier in the day, D’Auria reported.

The van actually smashed into two police cars and nine police officers were injured in the incident. All the injuries were relatively minor.

Police have two suspects in custody.

Queens men accused of grease theft

From CBS New York:

Two Queens men are accused of trying to steal used cooking oil from a New Jersey restaurant.

Police say they caught Youngil Kim and Byung Ho Choi sucking 700 gallons of grease from two storage tanks behind a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant in North Bergen Monday.

Waste oil can be turned into biodiesel fuel. The restaurant sells its grease to a contractor for a little more than $1 a gallon.

Police say the men attached a hose to a pump in a canary yellow van. The oil was stored in a plastic bladder.

Detective Lt. Frank Cannella tells The Record newspaper they “weren’t sneaky thieves, they were greasy thieves.”

Subway cell phone thief

From the Village Voice:

Are you a twentysomething woman who rides the #7 train? A guy may be after your cell phone. Have you seen him? The suspect struck on August 25 at 45th Road and Jackson Avenue, and on August 30 and September 7 at 52nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue. His M.O.: The train stops, he waits for the doors to open, grabs the cell phone, and flees.

He's described as a black male in his 20s, approximately 5'7" -- in two of the robberies he was wearing a white tank top, black shorts, and a white do-rag. If you have any info, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). And keep an eye on your phones.