Video shows Dee Rino playing a joke on unsuspecting shoppers. He pretends to have 2 broken arms and tells people he is locked out of his car and needs help getting in. When they help him get in, he steals a VCR from the car and takes off running.
I know this isnt really crime, but the shoppers dont know that. Hilarious video.
Here’s a tip for the guy who beat up a 101-year-old woman in a walker and took off with her purse: Get out of New York.
The vicious mugging, caught on surveillance tape, has sparked outrage in a city where people are accustomed to hearing about strange and violent crimes. Police have launched an all-out manhunt, but it’s not just the cops who want the villain’s head.
“I could hold him, and let the woman beat him up,” said Joe Sarju, 59, who lives in the Queens neighborhood where the attack occurred. “I’d love to beat him, but then they would lock me up.”
The heartlessness of the March 4 attack is clearly conveyed on the grainy, black-and-white videotape, which has now been broadcast well beyond New York.
In it, 101-year-old Rose Morat is trying to leave her apartment building to go to church. The mugger, a man who looms over the senior citizen and is holding on to a bicycle, pretends to help her get through the vestibule.
Then, he turns to grab Morat’s head and delivers three hard punches to her face, and swipes her purse. The dazed victim tries to reach for her purse when the mugger hits her again, pushing her and her walker to the ground.
He got away with $33 and Morat’s house keys. She suffered a fractured cheekbone and spent time in the hospital. The attack didn’t break Morat’s spirit, though: She has said in the days since that if she had been just a bit younger, she would have gone after the guy.
“I’m a very strong woman,” she said. “I’ve been that way my whole life.”
The NYPD has assigned dozens of detectives to the case and shown every uniformed officer in the city the surveillance video. Police are canvassing nearby residential buildings and businesses.
They believe the same man also attacked 85-year-old Solange Elizee, another neighborhood resident, shortly after robbing Morat. Elizee suffered facial cuts and bruises. The mugger took off with $32 and her wedding band.
Based on the victims’ memories and the tape, police say the attacker is a black man in his 30s, about 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds. He wore a winter jacket with a fur-lined hood. Police said Tuesday there were no new developments.
Several posters have been placed throughout the generally quiet Queens neighborhood, urging anyone with information to call with tips. So far, at least $18,000 in reward money is being promised by several sources, including the police.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in the state Senate proposed making it a felony to assault anyone older than 70. Currently, such assaults are misdemeanors, punishable by no more than a year in jail.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers struggled for the right words to describe the attacker because expletives just don’t seem adequate. In interviews and letters to newspapers, some suggested he deserves life imprisonment — or perhaps until he’s 101.
John Brown, 45, said the mugger must have been on drugs, because no rational person would do such a thing. “That was a cowardly act,” he fumed.
Others were reminded of the perils that could face their own parents and grandparents. Some wondered whether the mugger’s mother was alive.
“My mom is 95, and if someone ever raised a hand to her … they’d be dead,” said Anthony Riccardelli, 58, who works near the crime scene.
For others, it’s not just about getting revenge. Glenridge senior center in Queens decided to bring back self-defense courses after receiving dozens of phone calls on the topic after the attacks.
Susan Simonetti, the center’s executive director, also had a warning for the mugger: “Pick on somebody your own age.”
LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A citywide scavenger hunt turned sour for 40 Texas high school students when police learned of it and arrested them on felony charges of theft and engaging in organized criminal activity.
Laredo police accused the students — most of them in their final year at Laredo high schools — of stealing up to five truckloads of loot from across town. The scavenger list included items such as city traffic signs and pinatas, police said.
“We will cooperate fully, review the case and collaborate with officials to determine all the facts,” said Marco Alvarado, spokesman for the Laredo school district. “If needed, we will take appropriate action as specified in the student Code of Conduct.”
Police arrested the 32 adults and eight juveniles March 2. The students’ names were not released.
Officers first uncovered the escapade when a group of five students was pulled over for speeding. Their car contained stolen stop signs, a garden hose and other items, police said.
A short time later, the police department started receiving calls from residents who were angry about commotion caused by cars speeding in their neighborhood and stopping at a vacant lot.
Police determined the lot to be a drop-off point for stolen items. Officers arrested the students as they made drop-offs, the department said.
The older students were taken to jail, while the younger students were taken to a juvenile detention center. The police also impounded several of the students’ vehicles.
Juan Cruz, an attorney for United Independent School District, said the district would review the criminal charges on Monday and figure out what action to take.
A third-degree felony charge of engaging in organized criminal activity is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A state jail felony theft charge is punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
NEW YORK (AP) — For a moment, the man in the grainy video looks like a good Samaritan holding the door open for an elderly neighbor. Then he turns and delivers three sharp punches to the 101-year-old woman’s head.
“The next thing I knew, I had a big bang on the side of my face,” said Rose Morat, who suffered a fractured cheekbone and lost her purse and $33 to the mugger.
The attack was captured by a surveillance camera in the lobby of her Queens apartment building last Sunday.
“I’m quite sure that if it had happened when I was younger, I would have been after him,” she said. “I’m a very strong woman. I’ve been that way my whole life.”
Police said the same man is believed to have later attacked a second elderly woman in the neighborhood. Investigators were searching for a suspect Saturday.
“We are pulling out all the stops to find him,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. “We want to stop him before he strikes again.”
Morat said she was headed to church when she met the man in her lobby. He offered to help her make her way out, but she declined.
“I know how to handle myself,” she said.
As Morat maneuvered her walker through the building’s small vestibule, the man slowly put his bicycle against the wall, turned, and attacked her, the security video showed.
Her hat flew off, but she remained on her feet as the man removed her bag and felt her coat pockets.
Then, before making his escape, he punched her in the head again and shoved her to the ground.
Morat spent three days in the hospital.
The 85-year-old woman believed to be the mugger’s second victim, Solange Elizee, told police she was punched and pushed to the floor outside her apartment door by a man who had initially offered to help her get home.
“I like to help old people,” he said before turning violent, according to Elizee.
The man took her purse and got away with $32, police said.
Police didn’t have much difficulty arresting two teenagers Friday who are accused of phoning in a bomb threat at Southwest Middle School.
That’s because the two teen boys - along with a third still being sought - used the telephone at the house they were burglarizing, but they didn’t call the school, police said.
They delivered the threat by dialing 911.
“This indicates they would have been better off in school rather than burglarizing someone’s house,” said Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson. “Clearly that was not the brightest plan.”
Two of the boys were in jail Friday night. Police were searching for the third.
Around 9 a.m. Friday, 911 dispatchers received the call reporting a bomb in the cafeteria at Southwest Middle School. As with any 911 call, those receiving it trace the call to its source. Officers rushed to the location of the call at The Oaks at Brandlewood apartment complex on Garrard Avenue.
They arrived to find the apartment had been broken into. Officers searched the neighborhood and spotted the three teenager boys, whose arms were full of jewelry, video game systems, DVDs and other electronics, Wilson said.
Officers attempted to stop the boys, but they ran back to the apartment complex.
Police chased and apprehended two of them - Pierre Brown, 17, and a 14-year-old Southwest Middle student. Police did not identify the 14-year-old because of his juvenile status.
As officers were searching the neighborhood for the third suspect, they found a second apartment burglarized, Wilson said. Moreover, there had been a break-in at a house on Sandlewood Drive.
Police believe the teens pried open the doors and ransacked the homes for anything of value.
The two boys who were arrested are charged with three counts of burglary. Campus Police plan to charge both with transmitting a false public alarm, which is a felony, said Bucky Burnsed, spokesman for the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System.
Pierre was being held in the Chatham County jail. The 14-year-old was taken to the Savannah Regional Youth Detention Center.
K-9s tracked the third suspect, but the dogs were unable to locate him. No description of the third boy was available.
However, the dogs did find more of the items stolen in the burglaries, which were returned to their owners, Wilson said.
Police said the two teens, who live in the neighborhood where the burglaries occurred, are being investigated in a string of other crimes in the area.
“We’ve seen a sharp increase in burglaries in West Chatham County within the last week,” Wilson said. “Both of the individuals caught (Friday) have extensive records for these types of crimes.”
Brown is not a student in the public school system. He was released from the detention center last month.
“This goes right to the heart of truancy,” Wilson said. “School-age children who are out and about during normal school hours are typically engaged in criminal activity. That’s why we take truancy so seriously.”
The phony bomb threat caused middle school students to miss almost three hours of classes while bomb-sniffing K-9s combed the hallways, Burnsed said.
Police found no evidence of any explosives.
Besides these teens, Campus Police have arrested 10 people so far this year on bomb threat charges.
Haha.. Perhaps these kids should stay in school. It couldnt hurt.
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A thief called to apologize after assaulting a robbery victim. Police said that on Christmas Eve, two masked men tied up a couple at Missouri Poster and Banner at 1331 Erie St., and beat the owner. A week later, someone called to apologize and returned some of the stolen items…
“I’m really sorry about the other night. It didn’t turn out anything like it was supposed to,” the caller said. Police said they hope the message will lead them to the culprits.Â
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - An alleged burglar is under arrest after he accidentally provided police with a key clue.
CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports on the evidence that helped crack the case.
Saws, car stereos, even sets of golf clubs were all recovered from a string of burglaries in Northwest Indiana, and police think one man is responsible.
“The world’s dumbest criminal, maybe,” is how burglary victim Chris Brock described the alleged criminal.
Brock says he found a paper trail Phillip Miley allegedly left while breaking into his home, including a receipt from when he bonded out of jail on another burglary charge.
“He left his Social Security card, and a couple of check stubs,” Brock said.
Police believe the suspect hit a home in Lake County and up to four in Porter County.
Lake County Deputy Commander Shaw Spurlock invited Miley in to talk, and that’s when police say he revealed how he allegedly bagged the items.
“As far as we know, these crimes occurred on one single night. He was busy the entire night,” said Detective Jeff Biggs of the Porter County Sheriff’s Department.
“I’ve lived here for seven years and never had an incident. And then, all of a sudden in a week I’ve had three incidents,” Brock said.
He says the Dec. 28 burglary seems to have touched off more vandalism at his home.
He says he still has injuries from when someone stole his dump truck, then ran into him and just Tuesday morning, an explosion in his front yard.
Police are investigating to see whether the cases are connected.
In the meantime Brock and other victims wait to have their belongings returned to them.
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A would-be customer, shopping on eBay for a new GPS for his car, found one that fit the bill a little too perfectly: It’s the one that was stolen from him.
Danial Rangkar, 25, of Great Neck, was awaiting arraignment Monday on a charge of criminal possession of stolen property after allegedly trying to sell not only the victim’s stolen GPS device, but dozens of other electronic items including laptop computers, digital cameras, iPods, cellphones and other hand-held communications devices.
The name of his attorney was not immediately available.
The victim, who was not identified, said his particular GPS had a unique power cord and when he found it being offered for sale on the Internet about 10 days after it was stolen, he checked the serial number and it matched the one he had owned, police said Monday.
“Unbelievable as it seems, he was in the bidding to buy his own stolen GPS,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.
The police investigation led to Rangkar, who owns a “second hand” store in the borough of Queens. A search of his home and business uncovered several dozen items that police suspect had been stolen out of automobiles in the New York metropolitan area.
Police and prosecutors were hesitant to provide details of how they determined all the devices had been stolen, but at least two of the laptops were stamped “Property of St. John’s University.” Detective Ray Cote noted that the GPS devices specifically had the addresses of the legitimate owners programmed in and police were now contacting those victims to eventually return the items.
Catherine England, a spokeswoman for the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, said her company has a 2,000 employee “trust and safety” unit that constantly monitors the site for illegal activity. She said the unit includes a liaison with law enforcement and that anyone suspected of illegal activity immediately has their account canceled.
Early Monday morning, Rangkar was still offering a number of items for sale on the site; it was not immediately clear whether the items were suspected of being stolen. Rangkar, who worked under the name “nydannysjewelry,” was identified as a “power seller” on the eBay site and buyers as recently as Sunday were raving about him.
“Fast delivery. Excellent product. Will do business again,” read one comment.
England said it was possible police had yet to notify her company about the arrest.
Two men wanted in connection to a botched attempt to shoot open a safe stolen from a Gulf Breeze car lot have been arrested.
Robert Salter Jr., 20, of Pensacola turned himself in to Escambia County sheriff’s deputies Thursday. Paul Dean, also 20 and from Pensacola, was picked up by Escambia deputies Thursday, as well.
Salter originally told investigators he was driving by OBO Auto Sales, 3222 Fordham Parkway in Gulf Breeze, on Jan. 6, when he saw lights inside. When he went into the office to check, a burglar shot him in the leg, he claimed.
It turns out that Salter’s injury occurred after he and Dean burglarized the business, and Dean attempted to open the safe in a wooded area by shooting it with a .45-caliber pistol, law enforcement officers said. The shot ricocheted off the safe and struck Salter in the thigh.
Both men were transferred to Santa Rosa County Jail, where they were being held on $100,000 bond each.
Pittsburgh - A Clarion County woman who apparently used a stolen car to get to a state police barracks to be fingerprinted for a civilian job was arrested yesterday on an outstanding warrant from Georgia.
State police in Clarion said the woman had been sought in Georgia for stealing that car.
After taking fingerprints of Joshlynn Leigh, 30, of Strattanville, troopers learned of the warrant and placed her under arrest at 11:35 a.m.
In the parking lot of the barracks, troopers found the car that had been reported stolen.
Police didn’t have much difficulty arresting two teenagers Friday who are accused of phoning in a bomb threat at Southwest Middle School.
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A thief called to apologize after assaulting a robbery victim. Police said that on Christmas Eve, two masked men tied up a couple at Missouri Poster and Banner at 1331 Erie St., and beat the owner. A week later, someone called to apologize and returned some of the stolen items…
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - An alleged burglar is under arrest after he accidentally provided police with a key clue.
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A would-be customer, shopping on eBay for a new GPS for his car, found one that fit the bill a little too perfectly: It’s the one that was stolen from him.
Two men wanted in connection to a botched attempt to shoot open a safe stolen from a Gulf Breeze car lot have been arrested.
Pittsburgh - A Clarion County woman who apparently used a stolen car to get to a state police barracks to be fingerprinted for a civilian job was arrested yesterday on an outstanding warrant from Georgia.
