Report: Slain Brooklyn Cafe Owner May Have Been Dealing Pot

As authorities continue to investigate the death of Brooklyn cafe owner Josh Rubin, the Post's sources suggest the 30-year-old may have been dealing weed: "[Rubin] had been pressing his friends to buy large weights of weed... Rubin’s friends told investigators that he’d get them as much as a pound of pot at time, according to the sources." And Rubin's money problems are also being looked at.

Rubin was a first-time cafe owner, opening Whisk Bakery Cafe in Ditmas Park earlier this year—and his enthusiasm for the plan is apparent in a fundraising video. He was last seen on October 31, and his friends and family were worried, distributing fliers, hiring a private detective, and offering a reward for information about his whereabouts. It turns out that his burned body was discovered on a roadside outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania on November 1, but local cops had little information. Then on November 28, they received an anonymous tip that the body was Rubin's, and it took a while to get dental and DNA records for confirmation, which came this past week. An autopsy showed that Rubin's cause of death was a gunshot to the chest.

The Lehigh County DA's office says that Rubin owed his landlord money and had other debts totaling around $20,000, and the Post adds police are looking into whether Rubin was involved with loan sharks. But an anonymous law enforcement official told the NY Times, "If you knock on every other door in Brooklyn, you are going to find people with $20,000 in credit card debts."

Rubin's family released a statement, "We are devastated about the loss of our beloved son and brother, Joshua Rubin. He was a kind, caring and gentle young man. He was the type of person that people gravitated to because of his funny personality and truly caring nature. He loved talking to people and consistently made new friends. He had a big wonderful smile that could light up your day. Josh was deeply loved by his family and friends... Our hearts are broken."

A local merchant, Gene Grinberg of A-1 Glass and Mirrors, also spoke to the Times and said that he did $40 of work for Rubin and Rubin offered to give him free cups of $2 coffee to pay the bill. Grinberg, who agreed to the deal, said he saw a frantic-seeming Rubin pacing outside the cafe a few days before he went missing, "He looked really sad. I saw it on his face. Usually he smiled."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 24, 2011 2:55 PM

Comments [rss]

Gracie44554

He wasnt a drug dealer this is all lies the news makes up stories so people can distance themself and not have to worry about it happening to them ......things like this can happen to anyone at anytime

aktobk

now there's some christmas spirit.

TWaller

See, Nancy Reagan was RIGHT! Pot kills!!!!!! Now, let's all go enjoy a tall cool Budweiser and enjoy the great American pastime of smoking a pack of Marlboros.

Freddi BuBu

Umm, yea, jewish boy + pot dealing can be a lethal combination...

Chris Kessler

More like any non-gang boy + drug-dealing gangs (which are rampant in the area where his remains were found, as well as in Brooklyn) can be lethal. Google 222 corridor + drugs + gangs and settle in for a long read.

TrollyMcTrollington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

"Tim Osman"

LEGALIZE IT

the4thcoming

On a serious note, good riddance! One more turd off the streets.

GentleGiant

You know, nobody is requiring you to leave jerky comments.

getDange

wait, I lost you. you committing a suicide right this minute or you promising to never ever walk the streets again, never leaving mom's basement?

the4thcoming

Perhaps you were his only clientele

the4thcoming

This is impossible. He's white. So there is no way he was involved in anything illegal. Whites don't commit crimes, they just go thru rough patches in life, that's all.

dogbertt

I see you're trying to be sarcastic, but let's note that even if he was a criminal (which has not been proven), he was killed because of it, and further he never beat up people, set them on fire, robbed them, raped them, etc.

Non-white criminals tend to be much more successfull in their chosen careers.

Gracie44554

This isn't true it wasnt proven and this should be taken down its not helping the police find josh rubins killers its just giving jerks the right to post rude comments and spread lieas

Spirit of 76

an anonymous law enforcement official told the NY Times, "If you knock on every other door in Brooklyn, you are going to find people with $20,000 in credit card debts."

Really? That would be pretty bad. Nobody I know has that much credit card debt and I've learned to stay debt-free by not buying anything I can't pay the bill on a month later.

Brian Van Nieuwenhoven

Congratulations for being debt-free and sanctimonious!

Spirit of 76

Congratulations on being a cynical snot. Somebody expresses disbelief and you immediately assign ulterior motives. Do you really think that's not exaggeration? In many parts of Brooklyn, people can't even get $20,000 credit card limits.

Brian Van Nieuwenhoven

Then you are sadly naive. It's easy to rack up 100k in credit card debt. Also, personal loans, college college loans, and loan sharks don't exactly track your FICO score or income to make credit limit decisions. And mortgages count as debt too; not hard there to borrow 200k on a 60k salary. That's not even counting accounts payable at a small business, which can add up fast.

Mainly, what was the purpose of you talking about YOUR debt situation? Because you think you're the example he should have followed? That you're alive and he's dead because you have good finances and he didn't? People don't murder other people because someone is merely behind on a loan. And any attempt to draw a correlation is just victim-blaming speculation of the stupidest order. The murder was still ILLEGAL. And the fact that no one murdered you, either? Has nothing to do with your credit situation. You're just a lucky guy.

Spirit of 76

I guess I have to spell it out for your itty bitty, tiny mind. I didn't write anything about the victim. Show me where I wrote one word about him. That's your preconception. I was commenting on that absurd quote that half the people in Brooklyn are up to their ears in credit card debt. If you know anything about many of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn, you'd find that unbelievable. Do you really think lots of people in Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, etc. get $5000 pre-approved credit card offers all the time? Then you add in all those "personal loans, college college loans, and loan sharks," none of which was mentioned in the quote. Why would you even bring any of that into the discussion when it wasn't mentioned in the quote? $60k salary? FYI, the Census Bureau says the median household income in Brooklyn is about $42k. Anyone with a $42k income who has $20k or more in credit card debt at sky-high interest rates is an idiot.

canofpeas

Credit card distributors target people who are in debt; it's how credit card companies and banks make boat loads of money, late payments, interest, etc... their job is to create as much debt as possible. And people may be idiots for having large credit card debt, but given the lack of employment and the high cost of the living in NY, using cards for the basics has sadly been a matter of survival for many.