A 64-year-old Bulgarian immigrant and Hoboken, NJ resident is fighting the local bureaucracy over what he calls an "unconstitutional and irrelevant ticket" for disorderly conduct on a PATH train. And it stems from looking at a heavily tattooed woman. more ›

Last week, the story of a 21-year-old female student who was arrested and held by NYPD for 36 hours for not carrying ID outraged many people—even if the arresting officers didn't do anything explicitly illegal, most agreed it was an unnecessary and unwarranted abuse of power, and the fact that none of the officers stepped up to let Samantha Zucker free during her 36 hour ordeal was even worse. But now the NY Times reports that the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association can explain what happened: Zucker was just a casualty of the ticket-fixing scandal. more ›

Extending the courtesy of ticket-fixing to fellow officers, pepper-spraying peaceful protesters, and planting drugs on innocent suspects to meet arrest quotas are but three of the NYPD's less savory on-the-job exploits which have been put under the microscope via recent high-profile cases. But the NYTimes' Jim Dwyer points us in the direction of one person's smaller story of a particularly frivolous arrest which seems just as ridiculous as those bigger cases: a 21-year-old female student was arrested and held by NYPD for 36 hours for not carrying ID. And as Dwyer so simply puts it, once she finally reached a courtroom, "the judge proceeded to dismiss the ticket in less than a minute." more ›

All the great criminals of our time (the Joker, the Wet Bandits) have left a "calling card" of sorts at the scene of the crime, so perhaps this Queens robber was just trying to join their illustrious ranks. In October, 19-year-old Fred Littles and two accomplices refused to pay for a $40 cab ride they took to Far Rockaway, and then beat up the driver and stole $150 from him before jumping out. However, Littles dropped his identification card close to the cab, and police were able to track him down last week. Two months to find him? Maybe it was a fake ID. more ›

The controversy over the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team's effort to fly overseas with their tribe-issued passports has brought up issues about what it means for Native American's to have national sovereignty. Though the State Department offered to expedite U.S. issued passports for the team, the team manager said traveling with anything but their Haudenosaunee confederacy passports would be an insult to their culture. Now, the issue is dividing Native American nations across America. more ›

The police are hoping that the public can help them identify a 16-year-old boy who was found on the subway yesterday. A cop found the unconscious teen, who is described as either mentally handicapped or autistic, on a northbound 3 at 148th Street in Manhattan. NY1 reports that he "was very dehydrated and taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital." He is about 5'11", 185 pounds with a medium build and was wearing a blue hooded shirt, blue turtleneck, jeans and black shoes. Tipsters can call Crimestoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS, text TIP577 to CRIMES, or visit NYPDCrimeStoppers.com. more ›

A Brooklyn man has been charged with murdering a Russian court translator and a jewelry importer and stealing their identities. Investigators told the Daily News that Dmitry Yakovlev also took the identity of a former NYPD mechanic who has been missing since 2003, and they "believe there are even more victims whose body parts have been strewn across New Jersey over the past decade." A source told the tabloid: "He's got a lot of bodies on him ... The guy is a like a serial killer." more ›

A Pakistani deli worker in Staten Island is accused of trying to buy the identity of a dead child from the boy's mother. Rizwan Ahmed, 24, allegedly promised to pay $10,000 to obtain a birth certificate and social security card that belonged to Michael Keller, an 8-year-old who died of respiratory arrest in 1996. But he was busted when he tried to get a state ID under the new name. more ›

Nassau County police arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly breaking into an Island Park home. Police say Andrew Zellinger fled because a 14-year-old girl started screaming—Zellinger had apparently been standing in her bedroom. But police were able to nab him, since, as Newsday reports, Zellinger "left behind one very important piece of evidence when he ran: His personal identification." He was charged with first-degree burglary. Related: Over the summer, a robber returned to the Brooklyn home where he stole $200 because he...forgot his wallet. more ›

A woman tells the Post that Kings County Hospital misidentified her father Rodney Wells and refused to change his name on his hospital ID bracelet. Staffers insisted on having ID to fix the mistake, so Reshena Wells went home to get one--all while her father was being treated for his heart attack--and while on the errand, Wells says "a doctor phoned to say he had died." Then her father was sent to the morgue under the wrong name (though with a note saying "his real name could be Rodney Wells"). Kings County is the same hospital where a neglected patient died after collapsing in the psychiatric ward ER's waiting room. more ›

By next June, the Department of Homeland Security will start requiring passports for all border crossings. In order to make it easier for New York drivers, Governor Paterson today announced an “enhanced” driver license [EDL] which will be accepted by border security in lieu of a passport. Paterson says the EDL will “help to ease long lines at our New York-Canada border crossings, allowing commerce to flow more freely and securely in and out of the state.” more ›

License ID scanners aren't just keeping underage drinkers out of New York bars, they're now assisting police in arresting patrons who become involved in criminal activity both inside and outside of city clubs. The New York Post reports that the electronic scanners which help filter out fake IDs also supply cops with detailed records of every patron who entered a bar or club on any given evening. more ›