Two words: Planet Fitness. It’s this week’s police blotter.
There’s been a rotating crew of officers manning the front desk of the 84 for the last several weeks. They all appear different, but the one commonality is the look they give me when I tell them I have an appointment with crime analysis. “Why?” “Huh?” And my favorite – “Who?” I won’t even go into the look I get when I tell them I’m with a blog. Today was much the same – when I told the woman why I was here she was so flummoxed it took her several tries and two phones to dial the right extension. “I have a Heather here?” she said. A Heather? Eh, maybe one day I’ll be the Heather.
I’ll lead with the report you’ve all been waiting for, another shocking burglary at Planet Fitness. The details are like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Except for here. And here. And maybe here. A man claims to have locked his belongings in a locker, but when he returned from his workout, his locker was open and his wallet gone. The report added that his Visa card was used at Modell’s, Duane Reade, McDonald’s and for a metro card.
At 493 Fulton on Friday, a woman was shopping in the plus-size department of Rainbow Apparel when she noticed someone following her. The perp then reached into her bag and took her wallet; he was caught on camera, but not yet by police.
90 minutes later and just steps away at 505 Fulton, a woman left her purse unattended at Conway’s and poof! Like magic, it was gone.
At Bar Tabac at 11:30 p.m. last Sunday, a woman left her Hayden-Hartnett bag at her feet and poof! It also disappeared.
On Friday morning, a man locked his 2008 Suzuki motorcycle up at 328 State St. and before you could say “Planet Fitness” it was gone.
At 81 Bergen that night, a man closed up his office but accidentally left his key in the lock. Someone broke in and set off an alarm, but the alarm was not connected to a central monitoring system. Also, the building had one camera and it was fake. The thief made off with an $1,100 Panasonic DVX-100 camera (which is a kind I’ve actually had my eye on) and a Lacie hard drive.
At 8:45 am Tuesday, a woman nodding off on the C train was punched in the face and mugged at the Willoughby and Jay stop. One witness grabbed the thug, causing him to drop the woman’s belongings, but he got away. All items were recovered and the victim was treated at LICH.
At DUMBO Muffin on Sunday, the store owner opened up to find the place robbed of $10,000 worth of Jan Larsen art work; a $3,000 Faema Espresso maker; a $2,000 Bunn Coffee maker; a $2,000 refrigerator; $100 cash and a $100 CD player.
At the corner of Pierrepont and Willow Sts at 1 p.m. last Monday, a Verizon technician parked his van and went to a residence to do some work. When he returned, he saw the back door was opened and a laptop and Mikita drill were gone.
Earlier that day at 70 4th Ave., a man parked his car and left it running with the keys in the ignition. However, he locked the door and took a spare set of keys with him. When he returned 5 minutes later, the 2001 Chevy Astro was gone. In addition, the victim was either in the candy business or had some serious apologizing to do, because inside the car was 260 boxes of hard candy; 850 boxes of chocolate; and 100 boxes of gum. And that’s this week’s blotter.
[Note to Andrew Porter: no mention of an attempted mugging at Middagh and Hicks.]
