A Brooklyn father was fatally shot by police yesterday while investigating a possible break-in at his home. Dwayne Browne, 27, was shot once in the chest by police around 10:40 p.m. in East New York last night. "The officers told me they had to shoot him,'' his girlfriend Juanita told the Daily News. "They kept calling him the shooter. The officer said, 'I'm sorry. It was one of us. But he wouldn't put the gun down.'" more ›

According to police, a thief had such a good time when he broke into an elderly woman's Brooklyn apartment during the holidays, he decided to stay for a week! Bronx resident Toniquek Todman, 22, has allegedly admitted to police that he broke into the East Flatbush apartment on Christmas Eve, and decided to stay in the empty apartment till New Year's. “What a nut job. He should have been taken directly to Bellevue Hospital to get his head examined,” a law-enforcement source told the Post. more ›

Police say that a woman was raped inside her Upper East Side apartment on East 90th Street by a suspect who broke through a window. The incident occurred at 5:17 a.m. and WABC 7 reports, "The victim tells the police she woke up while she was being raped. Her attacker then ran out the front door. She chased him as far as the front doorway, but the rapist got away." more ›

Jimmy Whittemore may be sorry for drunkenly trashing the Ed Sullivan Theater, where The Late Show With David Letterman tapes, but now he's started a trend: Earlier this morning, a man was arrested breaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater. However, he only made it as far as the vestibule. more ›

The Brooklyn Paper's Police Blotter is always interesting, but there's this standout (or sitdown) item from the Brooklyn Heights-area roundup: "A nutjob stole a lawyer’s toilet and threatened to kill him on Valentine’s Day." more ›

Yesterday morning, one of the security guards at rapper 50 Cent's 48,000 square foot Farmington, CT mansion discovered an empty Mazda outside the gate, so he called the cops. And then another security guard discovered a guy hiding in the manse. According to the Courant, Alexander Hernandez, 19, "was found in a closet drinking a bottle of wine that he had stolen from the home," while Santos Padilla, 21,"was found in a separate closet, police said. Both men had marijuana in their possession, police said." Oh, and it's also believed they were drunk before entering the home. more ›

According to one resident, there has been a rash of rooftop break-ins in brownstones in Bed-Stuy. He wrote BedStuyBlog, "Just yesterday, we were burglarized by someone breaking through the entrance to our roof and literally taking our belongings, including a flat screen TV, out through the roof and over to a “safe house” a few doors down...I've heard that we were the latest in a line of victims." The crime statistics for Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct says that burglaries are down 25% from last year, with two in the past week and 70 in the year-to-date. Do those numbers count as a "rash"? more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] It's so important to diversify your portfolio. With a police sketch of his likeness taped to brownstone stoops throughout the West Village, the fake deliveryman suspected in a string of home invasion robberies has apparently taken his act back uptown. Yesterday afternoon, a nanny entering a West 81st Street apartment with a 5-month-old boy was followed into the building by the suspect, who was carrying a pile of packages. Once inside, he brandished a knife and forced his way into the apartment. more ›

Looking for a new dumbbell, or perhaps a surefire way to break into someone's car? One man's bad luck may just be your ticket to toned arms and free cd players. From a Craigslist post this morning: "Some douchebag thief threw a 50 lbs weight into one of my car's windows (parked in Douchebag Central, aka Murray Hill), taking an old CD player walkman from my glove compartment. The CD player was useless but the window cost me $100 to replace. I'd like to recoup the loss. Thankfully, said douchebag thief left the 50 lbs weight in the back seat of my car as a souvenir (You needed to lug around a 50 lbs. weight to do the job of 3 lbs. crowbar? No wonder you broke into my car and not one with something valuable in it. You're an idiot). Now you can benefit from my loss by buying this weight at a discount." more ›

Police are searching for a man in his 30's who broke into a West Village apartment wielding a knife, only to be driven off by the occupant's furious response. The Post spoke to the resident, Jennifer LaPierre, a 41-year-old writer who lives in a basement apartment on West 11th Street. The article makes clear that when she's not pounding the keyboard, she likes to pump iron and work out at a nearby gym. more ›

According to the Post, a robber has used an age-old tool for a new cause: Chiseling his way to rob apartments. more ›

Wayne Frost, one of the original Bronx-based Rock Steady Crew and better known as Frosty Freeze, died at Mount Sinai Medical Center late last week at the age of 44; it was not specified of what, just that he had a "long illness". more ›

Queens Councilman Hiram Monseratte is alleging dirty tricks in regards to the burglary of his office late this week. While the Councilman and his staff were at a community meeting Thursday evening, someone broke into Monseratte's office. It wasn't a regular break in--all that was taken was a laptop belonging to his chief of staff containing campaign information and a box of envelopes labeled with Monseratte's imprimatur. The fact that no other valuable items were stolen from the office leads the prospective state senate candidate to fear the robbery was politically motivated. more ›