The 10-year-old victim of the Monday night shooting in South Williamsburg turns out to be a tourist from Norway who had gone into a bodega with his dad. Josef Partapouli was released from the hospital yesterday (the bullet went in and out of his torso with no internal bleeding). A police source told the Post, "The victim was not the intended target. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." BUT HOW CAN THE COPS BE SO SURE? more ›

On Thursday night, three innocent bystanders were injured when two gunmen fired at a Bronx bodega. Below, you can see the surveillance footage of the shooting, during which 46-year-old Ricardo Acevedo was shot in the back of the head, 15-year-old Aleah Detres was wounded in the abdomen and 12-year-old Mia Washington was hit in the left leg. Amazingly, Acevedo was let out of the hospital less than two hours after he went in—still with the bullet in his neck—because doctors at St. Barnabas told him a local clinic could take the bullet out on Monday. “I feel okay. I don’t know anything about medicine. Since I felt okay, I listened to the doctors," Acevedo told the News. more ›

On Tuesday night, an 8-year-old was shot in the shoulder by a gunman on a bike in the Bronx. Armando Bigo, who is currently recovering from his wound at Jacobi Medical Center, described being hit by a stray bullet: “I was looking at the chips,” he told the Daily News. “I just wanted some chips. Someone opened the door and shot me...I don’t think I was brave. I got shot.” more ›

The State Liquor Authority sent six men and women, ages 18 to 20, to over 200 New York City bodegas to attempt to buy booze—and, sure enough, at 123 locations, the underaged succeed. The Daily News has details on the three-day sting, "Of the bodegas visited by the SLA, the Bronx had the highest citation rate. Thirty-eight of the 48 stores - about 79% - sold alcohol to underage spies in the borough. Manhattan wasn't far behind with 75% of the bodegas selling to customers under the age of 21." more ›

A bodega worker on Brewer Boulevard in Jamaica was fatally shot on Friday night. Police say that the gunman tried to rob the Melani Grocery but ended up shooting employee Jorge Marte when the 65-year-old tried to run to the front door. more ›

What could make disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner's week suck even more after formally resigning from the House of Representatives? Having Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only publication, The Daily, follow him as he buys $22.97 worth of flowers from a bodega in Queens, "Looking casual in a chambray button-down and jeans — maybe we’ll see an unemployment beard to match his dressed-down duds soon? — the overexposed Democratic pol passed over the long-stemmed red roses and jaunty yellow sunflowers in favor of three bundles of carnations in red, white and blue." Yeah, carnations! more ›

With Four Loko's danger past us, the NYPD is back to worrying about Nutcrackers. Last year the 34th Precinct in upper Manhattan declared war on the guys who peddle Nutcracker—a sweet homemade cocktail illegally sold to legal and underage drinkers—and this year they are planning on redoubling their efforts. "We want to get this off the street, especially when they are selling this garbage to little kids," Captain Jose Navarro of the 34th Precinct told DNAinfo. more ›

Now that Four Loko is back with a vengeance weaker formula, the state is cracking down on bodegas selling the drinks to teens again. But Senator Jeff Klein has a brilliant idea that could change the Four Loko trade forever! In a bill introduced on Wednesday, Klein suggested making the drink, which is about 12 percent ABV, available only in liquor stores. Wow, why did no one think of that before!? Oh wait, we did. more ›

The police have released surveillance video of a pair of men who have been robbing Bronx bodegas since the beginning of this year. In the footage from February 26, you can see one man rushing into the store holding a shotgun and the other holding a handgun. One bodega owner told NY1, “They put everybody on the ground. They put a pistol up to my father and they yelled, ‘Where the money at? Where the money at?’ My father said, ‘Take it. Take all the money.’" more ›

It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, which for many New Yorkers means taking a break from the stresses of the city, and stuffing oneself with food, family, mirth and merriment. But for some people, it's just another time to have a fight in a Bodega. AnimalNY has video of such a fight at a Bodega at E112th and 3rd, in which an agitated, possibly tweaked customer flips out on a display aisle and then gets into a fight with someone working at the store as a crowd gathers and cheers/jeers. The police are called, and the large man with long hair is brought down after many false stalemates. Everyone who watches this video will find a different moral in it, but we just want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving, and let's all try to avoid Bodega fights for one day! more ›

When does a Halloween costume accessory cease being a Halloween costume accessory and become a potential explosive device that the bomb squad needs to investigate? When it's in a Bronx bodega where cops are investigating the illegal sale of loose cigarettes, aka "loosies." more ›

When a shabby old bodega on South Third Street and Bedford Avenue closed last year, we never thought it would be reborn as an artsy film, theater, and music venue. But this being Williamsburg, we really should have seen it coming. Introducing Spectacle Theater, a new 35-seater screening semi-obscure, non-mainstream films "unavailable on DVD" at least five nights a week. Admission is $5, and that includes shorts and other pre-show entertainment. Co-owner Akiva Saunders tells us they opened about two months ago, and they still have a bit more work to do, but he's proud of how his team turned this "filthy" old bodega into a cozy art house theater. more ›

Over the weekend, wheels on an effective ban on Four Loko and other caffeinated alcohol drinks got moving. The State Liquor Authority pressured distributors to stop selling the drinks to New York retailers by December 10th, and the makers of Four Loko agreed to stop giving the drinks to the distributors by November 19th. Lawmakers say teenagers can get the sweet "blackout in a can" far too easily, and bodega owners agree. One 19-year-old said kids are constantly asking for the stuff at his family's deli in Crown Heights. "Sometimes kids come in before school," he told the Daily News. "They buy them like crazy." And when a teenager demands alcohol at 8 a.m., you have to sell it to them, right? more ›

Bodega worker Danny Caba is the latest in a long line of retail employees who inexplicably risk their lives to protect their bosses' profits from thieves. At 7:15 a.m. on Saturday morning two men—one wearing a black mask and bullet-proof vest and carrying a .40-caliber Glock loaded with 12 rounds—entered the Lantigua deli at 30-74 14th St. in Astoria, forcing employees in the back of the store to lie on their stomachs and quickly moving behind the counter, where they encountered Caba, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who just wasn't having it. Oh hell, no. more ›

We're really sorry that the Taco Bell Drive Thru diet hasn't been working for you like you wanted, but this new-fangled "Bodega Diet" might be just the thing to help you lose that weight while still avoiding actually cooking anything. While most of the time a bodega diet just consists of salty chips, old cans of soup and sandwiches with piles of fatty meat, nutritionist Janine Whiteson says you can live off the corner deli and still stay healthy. more ›

Cops raided at least six stores on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn this afternoon, arresting eight and seizing a firearm and two pounds of marijuana. For two months the "open drug bazaar," between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights has been under investigation, during which time undercovers purchased pot and cocaine more than fifty times. (According to NBC, a pound of weed went for $1,100.) Many of the shops targeted for their over-counter drug sales were bodegas, reports ABC, though a jerk chicken place and a little CD store were also raided. A tipster tells us that around 1:30 p.m. there were "About 100 cops everywhere, chopper still circling, SWAT guys... I looked in and they were pushing up the ceiling tiles with a machete." more ›

Authorities busted Bronx bodegas for selling "nutcracker"—a sweet cocktail illegally sold to underage drinkers at delis, convenience stores and barbershops across the city. Cops arrested two bodega employees and the state suspended the beer licenses at two Mott Haven delis after an under-aged, undercover auxiliary cop was able to purchase the homemade drinks. "This is so outrageous, we are going to seek revocation," said State Liquor Authority Deputy Chief Executive Officer Michael Jones. more ›

Two sweet-toothed men are bitter after being mistakenly arrested for possession of crack cocaine. "I spent five days in jail for possession of coconut candy," said 33-year-old dad Cesar Rodriguez, who works as a plumber's assistant. Now he and his friend want their just desserts--they're planning a $2 million lawsuit against the NYPD, who their lawyer say was careless and didn't follow protocol. more ›

Remember "nutcracker" — the bootleg concoction of booze and fruit juice sold in barbershops and bodegas uptown? Did you know you can make $20,000 a year selling it? A man who has mixed and distributed the sugary street cocktail for the past six years sat down with the Manhattan Times and described the trade. more ›

Police are searching for the three men who robbed a Bushwick bodega on Jan. 11. The perps — one of whom was carrying gun — entered the Evergreen Avenue grocery at around 4:30 am and assaulted a clerk and a customer, the Village Voice reports. They also disabled a security camera, but not before two of the suspects were caught on film. The camera-breaker and his accomplices are described "as Hispanic and between 5'6" and 5'9" and 20 and 30 years of age." Here's the video: more ›

You got to hand it to kids — they always find interesting ways to get bent. New York City teens are apparently buying a sugary concoction of fruit punch mixed with vodka, white rum, or tequila called "Nutcracker." The sweet drinks and their frozen counterpart, "Nemo," are sold for $5 or $10 per Styrofoam cup at bodegas and barbershops, and according to the Daily News, they are quite popular among young folks. "They are poppin'. They get you sauced," said Shaquel, a 15-year-old who declined to give his last name. "Kids like them. You don't need ID to get them. It is like your first step toward drinking liquor." more ›

Love 'em or hate 'em, 7-Eleven is here to stay. According to the Observer, the store will be a "recessionary scar" on this city for quite some time. The company will open 100 new Manhattan locations (up from six) in the next five years. They're also encouraging storeowners "to convert their existing business to a 7-Eleven store, complete with business model, products and technology." Will the corporate giant kill the bodega? At least we can look forward to easy access to Free Slurpee Day and that cabernet "with juicy plum Slurpee overtones." more ›

A gunman in a white Cadillac Escalade opened fire on a Clinton Hill bodega last night, striking a pregnant woman and two men who were standing inside. The perp began shooting at the DeKalb Gourmet Deli near the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Kent Avenue at around 7 pm, hitting a 15-year-old boy in the arm and torso, a 20-year-old man in the leg, and a pregnant 24-year-old in the upper thigh. more ›