DailyHeights

Captain M writes: “At around 9:15 last night, the Hing Lung Restaurant (Vanderbilt and Park Pl.) had their moped stolen … it was yellow with red flames and a shiny but fake exhaust pipe. It had skinny wheels compared to most of the other delivery bikes. There was some talk that it was stolen by two kids … (Read more)

beep… beep… beep… (radar sounds)

daniel writes: “Not sure if this is the same guy, but before I read this, I passed some guy standing on the corner of Union and 7th in a large red soccer jersey muttering obnoxious comments to women as they walked by. I paid him no notice.”

Munchkin wants to know. Also, roving private security trucks? Night parking for residents only? Etc.

LINK: Neighborhood Watch [Munchkin in the Daily Heights Forums]

Jose writes Daily Heights: “Via a Gothamist post, I came across the crime stats for our lovely precinct, the good ol’ reliable 7-7. While the 2004 crimes were down compared with 1993, the current numbers are freaky. There’s been a 66.6%[5] jump in rapes versus the 3 of 2004 for the last 28 days, and 75% increase in murders. Ahh, the price of cheap rent.”

Gothamist post here: http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/07/13/crime_news.php

The 7-7 stats here (Report Covering the Week of 06/27/2005 Through 07/03/2005) [PDF]:
http://nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/chfdept/cs077pct.pdf

Lucas writes: “Wow! Ms. James is reading her email… She responded in under three hours! Thought DH readers might appreciate this.”

“Dear Ms. James: I’m writing to ask that you take a look at the state of crime in our precinct (the 77th) this summer. Though it appears that overall statistics are down (almost across the board) St. John’s between Underhill and Classon is an area of growing concern…

LETITIA JAMES RESPONDS: You are absolutely correct, there have been a number of shootings in the precinct, and I suspect, an increase of unreported low level crimes being committed in our community…”

Click below for the whole exchange.
Read more …

1. daveb writes in the Daily Heights Forums:

“I was mugged and beaten up pretty badly on Saint Johns Place between Underhill and Washington (I also happen to live on this stretch) Sunday night (19th). The police did not seem too interested in getting a description of the attacker and seemed to me to stop taking notes after ‘tall, black and in his late 20’s,’ cutting me off when I offered descriptions of his clothing, what direction he ran in etc. My overall feeling was that they just didn’t care. I’ve also had my apartment robbed twice in the past year, both times eliciting a very lackluster response from the police. I’m very upset about the crime in this neighborhood and the lack of policing. It’s no fun having to eat through a straw and knowing that the guy who nearly killed you likely lives on your block, if not your street.”

2. BONUS! Arielbl writes in the same thread: “My next door neighbor was mugged and pistol-whipped in the vestibule of our building on st johns between franklin and classon, on a friday evening, between maybe 11pm and midnight. The guy must have been following him and pushed him into the vestibule when he unlocked the door.”

“I like to think that this kind of stuff is an anomaly. This is my first summer in ‘proho,’ and it seems like things are a lot worse with the warm weather.”

ADAM NICHOLS writes in the Daily News: “[Tristan] Charlier, 24, and [Leon] Roberts, 25, of Jamaica, Queens, were found at 2:20 a.m. Wednesday with multiple gunshot wounds by a bus stop in this Caribbean island paradise [St. Thomas]…The friends had arrived in the U.S. Virgin Islands fewer than 15 hours earlier to attend the wedding of [Twumasi] Weisel, who is from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.”

WEISEL: “[Charlier] had some kind of altercation with someone. He didn’t say what had happened and I didn’t give it a second thought. Now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Weisel’s marriage to Jessica Dukes, 35, went ahead on Saturday, but the festivities were dampened by the slayings… ‘ There was definitely a cloud hanging over the day, but I think it was good that we did something positive, that we moved on,’ he said.”

LINK: New Clue in Paradise Slays [Daily News]

Ariel from St. John’s reports to Daily Heights: “Just a heads up… This last Saturday, I was in Target at Atlantic Avenue with a friend. She was so excited by the not-Manhattan prices (having come all the way down from the UES to visit) that she wasn’t paying very good attention to her purse. We turned around and it was gone from the shopping cart where she’d left it.”

“Fortunately, the Target security people were fabulous, and they managed to recover the purse (and apprehend the thief) within minutes, and the officers from the 88th Precinct were also great when it came time to go down to the station and fill out the report (they even gave us a ride back when we were all done, and in one of the nice new squad cars too!).”

“Apparently, this exact kind of theft (purse from uinattended shopping cart) happens several times a week at Atlantic Yards, and most people aren’t as lucky as my friend was. Moral of the story: when your mom said “never leave your purse in the shopping cart!”, she was right!”

Well… now those hooligans will have plenty of time to think about what they’ve done… BEHIND BARS! (In Reality: probably back out on the street in time for dinner)

Link: Atlantic Center Deliberately Forbidding

Beware: The PH Identity Thief

Behold the Power of the Interweb! It all started innocently enough, with Susan asking in the Daily Heights Forums whether anyone had been accosted by The Panhandler with the Mother who has Wrecked her Car. It didn’t take long to determine that this guy, who we’ll call the ProHo Gaffler for short, has probably defrauded hundreds of people in Prospect Heights, and as Set Speed reported, also in Fort Greene. Somebody else said they thought they saw him at Blue Ribbon eating oysters and drinking a martini with a girl. So we offered a $25 bounty for an actual photo of this guy, thinking this was a total longshot and, heh heh, we would never have to pay out.

Well… now we have this report from HJC (a.k.a. “11238”), who claims she just saw the Prospect Heights Con Man: “I was getting my car at the garage on Underhill between Prospect and St. Marks, where he came up to the passenger window and started the whole story. He asked me if I knew where to find a tow truck, because his mother had a stroke. He then went on saying that he works at NBC and that he can get me tickets to a concert. He asked for $15.00. Meanwhile, he is going on and on and on, and all I am thinking is, how the HELL am I going to get his picture? So finally I just asked what time it was, and looked at my phone and snapped.”

Heaven forbid that DAILY HEIGHTS act as judge, jury and executioner on matters as serious as “who’s scamming who” in Prospect Heights… but now we have Susan in the comments below making a positive ID: “That’s the guy!” she says. The rules of the contest were as follows: To claim the reward, the photo must be independently confirmed as “that guy” (as in, “Hey! It’s that guy! The guy who said he could get me Letterman tickets!”)

So congratulations, 11238, you win! We are preparing a special OVERSIZED CHECK (just like you see on all those Jerry Lewis telethons) to present to you next Thursday at the Daily Heights Real-Life Happy Hour.

“I cannot believe I saw him today. I am PSYCHED!” 11238 said in the aftermath. “The best was that I wanted to bust the guy after I took the picture, but I was so happy I got it, I just said ‘NO!’ and drove away.”

Links:
Con Man Says Supersize Me [set speed]
The Panhandler with the Mother who has wrecked her car [Susan in the Daily Heights Forum]
Reward for Photographic Evidence of the Panhandler [Daily Heights]