High Street iRobber Foiled

By on March 20, 2012 8:34 pm in crime, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Neighborhoods, News, Police Blotter, Transportation

A tech-savvy police officer from the 84th Precinct helped catch a thief this afternoon. According to cops, a 32-year-old woman fell prey to an armed robber at the High Street station just before 1:20 P.M. The suspect fled with the victim’s pocketbook and iPhone. The victim quickly found an officer stationed on Pearl Street and reported the incident. Officer Benito Ocasio, honored as a Cop of the Month in 2009, suggested that he might be able to track the phone using the victim’s iTunes account. In doing so, they saw that the phone was then in the vicinity of 111 Bridge St. in the Farragut Houses. Responding there, police found the suspect exiting the building…with a ringing phone. He was stopped, positively identified by the victim, and taken into custody. The victim’s property, including credit cards and state ID, was recovered. Police have identified the suspect as Brian Mack, 55. He now faces charges of robbery, grand larceny, menacing, possession of a weapon, and criminal trespass.

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  • Heightsman

    Wow. Great police work! Nice going NYPD…..

  • AEB

    Yes, amazing responsiveness/willingness to follow through!

    I mean, it would be nice if Officer Ocasio’s actions didn’t elicit an immediate sense of their rarity, but still…

  • Heightsguy

    55 y.o. mugger caught my eye. They must retire later and later as 401K’s tank.

  • Publius

    Thank you Apple for the Find My iPhone App and iCloud! Busted, boyeee. In jail, in jail without no bail. In jail.

  • x

    wow a cop who actually cares… instead of asking you to fill out paperwork

  • C.

    If only all cops were this good. I’m willing to bet if my iPhone is ever stolen I could open up find my iPhone and show the cops the phones exact location and they wouldn’t do anything.

  • WillowtownCop

    How about nice job officer thank you for your hard work and risking having some stupid defense attorney subpoena your personal phone? Oh, and your life too – it’s been less than a year since one of you from the 84th precinct was murdered by one of the fine citizens of the neighborhood.

    Nope – much better to say oh, well, most of them are lazy, useless civil servants – this one must be the exception.

  • my2cents

    Well, I’m impressed! Kind of scary to think there was an armed robbery at 1:20pm!

  • Livingston

    Yes, Willowtown Cop, exactly what I was thinking. (plus the amazement that a mugging happened in broad daylight) Being a cop in NYC must be one of the toughest jobs in town — if you’re not dealing w/ the criminal lowlifes (& their lawyers) or OWS tantrums, then you have to contend w/ the clucking ingrates,as witnessed above.

  • EHinBH

    good job! gotta be thankful for cops. where in the High Street station did this happen????

  • weegee

    EH – PD says it was at the Adams & Sands St. end of the station.

  • David on Middagh

    Weegee,

    There oughta be a sign in the pedestrian underpass of the High Street station:

    “Now Leaving Brooklyn Heights”

  • EHinBH

    thanks. wow, that is a real bummer… i’ve always thought that passage would become dangerous. they should put the toll clerk in there….

  • PJL

    Thankful for the job that cops do, but the 84th pct seems to neglect our area in terms of patrols… The High St. station (including the ‘Brooklyn Hts side’) has some pretty desolate areas due to its size/lack of token clerk on one side and becomes a haven for people who seem to be homeless on cold nights. I commute back and forth through there every day (since 2004) and can’t remember ever seeing a police officer patrolling/walking through the station (or the general area above ground on either side of Cadman).

  • PierrepontSkin

    Another reason why I don’t “Ride the A Train”. Sorry, Duke. Nice job, Officer!
    Also, 55 years old and mugging? Shouldn’t this dude be a master thief by now?

  • WillowtownCop

    The 84th Precinct does not patrol the train stations. Transit District 33 does. Precinct cops radios do not work underground and they would not be able to hear a job if it came over. Only transit radios work underground.

  • Andrew Porter

    Actually, there is ALWAYS a police officer in that station, in a small booth at the west end of the platform. It’s part of the NYPD anti-terrorism force.

    The passageway above the actual platforms is smaller, the far western end having been cut off and walled up about 10 years ago. The station is the size it is because once it was the station from which buses met the trains and transported workers to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And Farragut Houses was once U.S. Navy Housing—it was turned over the the Housing Authority after WW2.

  • PJL

    Thanks for the responses. I’ve seen that booth empty many times, particularly at night. In any event, I was alluding generally to the lack of (perceived?) police presence in the Brooklyn Heights/downtown area.

    Is it assumed that ‘good’ neighborhoods stay that way without police patrols/visibility?

    Seems to me that we could use a deterrent to what appears to be increasing street crime of late…. How do we best address these concerns with the 84th pct./transit district 33?

    We get more than our share of traffic agents, so I don’t think some patrols are too much to ask… areas around the 4/5 and A/C stations seem to be particularly in need lately….

  • WillowtownCop

    PJL – they pretty much do it by the stats – click on the 84 and we are down for the year, and then click on the 61 and see how much they are up. Then try the 73 or the 75 and see how much they have altogether compared to the 84.

    http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml

  • Dismayed

    I never see police around the neighborhood!

  • Andrew Porter

    But they see you…