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POLICE BLOTTER

By Tom Tracy

Beaten and robbed – A 37-year-old man was punched in the head, knocked to the ground and robbed of his property as he passed the corner of Hicks and Degraw streets, officials said this week. The victim told police that he was walking past the corner just before 1 a.m. on February 19 when three thugs attacked him. After pelting the victim with punches, they robbed him of $30, assorted credit cards, a set of keys and his cell phone, officials said. As this paper went to press, the three suspects, described only as black males, were still at large. Not-so benign bump The thing that goes bump in the night has officially been identified: it’s a husky, 6’1”, 260-pound burglar that scared the socks off of a 61-year-old Douglass Street resident last week. The victim told police that he was on the second floor of his home, located between Hoyt and Smith streets, at 7 p.m. on February 16 when he heard a loud bang downstairs. He descended the stairs to find a light-skinned black male in his vestibule. The man had apparently broken through the front door, officials said. But, realizing he was discovered, he quickly apologized and quietly snuck away from the home. Nothing was reported taken, officials said. The burglar, police said, was still at large. Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to come forward. Calls can be made to the 76th Precinct at (718) 834-3211. All calls will be kept confidential. Illegal house sitter Cops in Red Hook are looking for the thief who broke into a West 9th Street apartment last week while the tenant was out of the neighborhood, visiting her family. Police were told that the victim, 38, had left her home between Mill Avenue and Henry Street on the afternoon on February 3. When she returned home after a short stay with her family on February 11, she discovered that someone had broken in, taking a 13” television, a stereo and a $25 ring. Police believe that the thief entered the home through a window, but it was unclear exactly when the break-in took place. Hero teacher A neighborhood teacher was lauded as a hero last week when she stopped a robbery on a city bus rumbling, officials said. Police from the 78th Precinct were told that a 14-year-old child was on the B67 bus as it made its way down the 300 block of 7th Avenue just after 3 p.m. on February 15 when he was confronted by three other teens, which included a Nevins Street adolescent, who demanded his iPod. When the 14-year-old refused to hand it over, the others began punching him, officials said. The teacher, who also happened to be on the bus, intervened immediately, stopping the would-be robbery in its tracks. The three teens disembarked at the next stop and were apprehended as they made their way into the 7th Avenue Station at 9th Street. The teens, two 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old were all charged with attempted robbery. Robbed of bag A 19-year-old woman was robbed of her handbag last week as she made her way to an area train station. The woman told police that she had just left her job on Columbia Street in Red Hook and had made it to the R station at the corner of 9th Street and 4th Avenue at 5 p.m. on February 13 when an unidentified male grabbed her arm and ordered her to fork over her bag. The suspect snatched the bag from her grasp and ran off, officials said. No injuries were reported. Moving day Thousands of dollars worth of games and electronic equipment, including a Pac Man arcade game, was removed from the Catty Shack bar at 249 4th Avenue last week, police said. Workers told police that they arrived at the neighborhood watering hole at 11:30 a.m. on February 11 to discover that the rear door had been forced open. Items removed included a $1900 flat panel television, a DVD player, a number of satellite boxes, a $1,000 CD player, jukebox, cash box, and pool table. Neighbors told responding officers that they had seen four people removing property from the bar that morning. Bank bandit search Cops are asking the community for help in their search for two men wanted for a recent bank robbery. Officials said that the two men entered the Washington Mutual Savings Bank at 192 Smith Street at 3 p.m. on January 29, passed a threatening note to a teller, but then ran off without taking a dime. Cops described one of the two would-be bank robbers as a 6’0” to 6’3” black male in his thirties between 170 and 190 pounds with green eyes and a light complexion. At the time of the robbery, the thief was sporting a goatee and wearing a beige coat with a hooded sweatshirt, a gray hat and blue surgical gloves. His accomplice is described as 5’5” black male in his thirties to forties with a medium build. The man was seen wearing a white “Ecko” reversible jacket and a light-colored hat. Cops are asking anyone with information about these two men to contact NYPD CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. Wipe Out Graffiti As the ongoing war against graffiti continues, a $500 reward is being offered to anyone with information about graffiti vandals in their neighborhoods. The hefty reward is part of the city’s new push to rid New York of graffiti vandals. Graffiti is one of the leading quality of life complaints brought to police. Anyone with information about graffiti vandalism is urged to contact either 311 or 911. Shedding some cash Cops are investigating a complaint from workers at a Court Street business who said last week that their bank account weighs less than it should. Officials at LA Weight Loss, 44 Court Street, contacted police on February 19, claiming that an employee had trimmed down their bank account. Workers said that between January 1 and February 10, they had charged a new employee with the responsibility of depositing over $2,700 in their bank. The money, however, never found its way into their account, they said. Robbed of purse A knife-wielding thief is being sought for a handbag robbery at the corner of Nevins Street and Atlantic Avenue last week. The victim, 55, said that she was walking toward the corner just before 6 p.m. on February 16 when an unidentified stranger ran up to her. The thief pulled a knife, cut the strap to the purse and ran of with the woman’s bag, which contained over $200 in cash and several credit cards, officials said. No injuries were reported. Cops are asking anyone with information regarding this incident to come forward. Calls can be made to the 84th Precinct at (718) 875-6811. All calls will be kept confidential. More purse snatchings Cops are looking for the unidentified male who robbed a woman of her purse near the corner of Nevins and Livingston streets last week. The woman, a city Department of Corrections employee, said that she was walking to a restaurant at 2 p.m. on February 12 when the thief crept up to her from behind. The suspect ripped the bag from the woman’s shoulder and ran off without stopping, officials said. As of this writing, the purse snatcher was still at large. While you were sleeping A 42-year-old man said that he was robbed of his laptop computer and camera as he snoozed on a train rumbling into downtown Brooklyn recently. The victim said that he had gotten on the Brooklyn-bound G train in lower Manhattan at 6:30 p.m. on February 5 and promptly fell asleep. His bag carrying the laptop, camera and medication was sitting on the train seat right next to him, he said. He woke up at the DeKalb Avenue station a short time later and quickly discovered that his bag was missing, he told cops from the 84th Precinct.