Yesterday, it was reported that an 80-year-old woman was robbed and shoved to the ground in Chelsea for her gold chain by a mugger. Now there are two more reports of 80-something-year-olds being mugged and punched—and all three incidents happened this past Wednesday! more ›

While some banks may have today off for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the cops have warned them that thieves never take time off and target holiday weekends for robbing branches. Apparently the police sent out a memo telling banks to be "extremely vigilant" for teams of thieves planning elaborate heists! more ›

When 50-year-old ex-con Luis Torres was busted for allegedly committing a string of burglaries in fancy Manhattan neighborhoods, police say they found over 100 keys to other apartments in his crib. 100 keys! Now they're going through and trying to figure out how many other places he may have robbed, and the Daily News reports that cops also found bent credit cards, a "treasure trove" of jewelry, and other electronic devices in his home. more ›

Have you seen either of these two men? If so, the police would really love to talk to you as they are wanted in relation to a six-week, 14-store crime spree across Manhattan in which they are said to have targeted bodegas, dry cleaners, and chains like Subway and Duane Reade in busy neighborhoods. more ›

A Queens teenager was stabbed to death yesterday as a gang of his peers attempted to rob him of his iPhone. According to the Daily News, 17-year-old Patrick Dixon was exiting a bus with a friend around 11 a.m. on 142nd Street around Foch Boulevard, when five teens approached them and attempted to take Dixon's iPhone. A struggle ensued as Dixon fought back, and one of the assailants stabbed him in the neck. The teens then fled the scene, leaving the phone behind. Dixon, a student at Thomas Edison High School, was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. more ›

An armed robber is on the loose and not even the literary elites are safe! more ›

18-year-old Westchester resident Jesse Wasserman, better known as the "Boarding School Bandit" after his tenure at the tony Vermont Academy, was sentenced to 16 months in prison yesterday for his role in a string of Central Park armed robberies last summer. "I am very sorry for what happened to these innocent victims," Wasserman said, "I was not in my right mind." DNAinfo reports that the judge gave Wasserman youthful offender status, meaning that his records will be sealed after he serves his time. Wasserman's accomplice, Alex Greene, who allegedly brandished the firearm during the robberies, has yet to be sentenced. more ›

The police and the FBI are on the lookout for 54-year-old Sam Chatman, a man who is now connected with four bank robberies. Yesterday Chapman entered a Chase bank on Fifth Avenue a little before noon, brandished a gun and handed a note to the unlucky teller demanding cash and promising to "shoot anybody." more ›

We all laughed when that CBS 2 reporter suggested that terrorists could utilize bike lanes to wreak havoc on innocent bystanders, but today we stand humbled and afraid: two "bicycle bandits" have struck in Greenwich Village. Police say that a pair of thieves on "silver bicycles" approached a 21-year-old man at East 10th Street and University Place around 12:40 a.m. Monday morning, told him they had a gun, and robbed him of his money and other items, DNAinfo reports. We kindly ask DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan for several thousands of gallons of paint thinner, so that we may erase those ghastly bike lanes ourselves on bended knee. more ›

Two years ago, a prisoner managed to stroll out of the Criminal Court Building in Manhattan because he was wearing a business suit and convinced a guard that he was a lawyer. After a day on the lam, police caught Ronald Tackman—wearing jeans and a t-shirt—in Washington Heights with a fake passport, wigs, phony beards, and four gun-shaped cigarette lighters. Now, a judge has sentenced him to a maximum of life in prison, even though Tackman argued he needed the NY Attorney General to certify the constitutionality of the laws sending him to the pokey, "If I bought a painting from Sotheby’s, it would be certified authentic by three experts. If you buy a Ford, it’s certified. If you buy a diamond ring, it’s certified. The laws of America must be certified. They are much more valuable than a painting. How come I can’t see proof of this?" more ›

Gotham City is home to a particularly colorful class of criminals, from The Riddler to Mad Hatter to Ten Eyed Man...and the real life Gotham ain't too different! We have robbers with "Hitler-like" mustaches, the "Scream" mask guy, and Darth Vader. And now there's a new criminal mastermind with a catchy nickname to add to that venerated list: the "Hefty Burglar." more ›

As expected, the NYPD's overall crime rate was down for 2010, but murders, rapes and robberies were up. According to NY1, "the city recorded 526 murders this year, up from 471 in 2009 - a 13 percent increase." The 471 was a record low in the "modern NYPD record keeping" era (the previous record was 496 in 2007; the peak was 1990's 2,245 murders). more ›

There are some pretty terrible ex-boyfriends, and then there is Jerry Ramrattan; while some bitter exes might be satisfied with talking trash or Facebook stalking, Ramrattan took the whole thing to Machiavellian levels of evil according to his ex, Seemona Sumasar. Prosecutors believe that he carried out a devious plan to intimidate and frame her for armed robbery, which resulted in Sumasar losing her business and spending seven months in jail. more ›

It's easy to get frustrated with the NYPD with all the reports of quotas, stat manipulation, and improper bike-lane usage, but once in a while they get to do some real detective work and prove themselves entirely capable. Or maybe just lucky: the NYPD announced that they have arrested four men who are charged with perpetrating a three-month crime spree, robbing 19 businesses across the city. And we have a NJ detective to thank for the catch. more ›

The latest NYPD crime statistics revealed a 29% jump in robberies for October 11-17 compared to last year, according to the NY Post, and that means top NYPD officials will be holding an "emergency summit today.... Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, the highest ranking uniformed officer, and Chief of Operations Patrick Timlin are expected to grill the heads of the NYPD's eight borough commands, detective borough chiefs and housing and transit borough chiefs, the sources said." more ›

A tip from a reader pointed us to the Brooklynian message board, where a woman posted about being mugged in Park Slope this past week... "I was robbed and bashed on the head by something that felt like a bottle (but may have been something else), and ended up in the hospital with stitches." more ›

A former NYPD officer pleaded guilty yesterday to being part of a stickup crew that dressed up as cops and made more than 100 robberies stealing from drug dealers. Jorge "Shorty" Arbaje-Diaz, 31, a three-year veteran of the force, admitted to stealing more than $4 million in cash and 1,650 pounds of cocaine from his drug dealers. He faces between a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 22 years when he is sentenced in the fall. more ›

The Post has some details on a "violent spate of daytime robberies and assaults on Manhattan subway" that occurred this week, adding that it could be "another indicator the city could be sinking back to the bad old days that once gripped the Big Apple with fear." And an incident on Tuesday was sparked by a confrontation between two gangs at...Strawberry Fields. more ›

More fodder for "bad old days" worrying? According to the Post, crimes in all major crimes were up last week: "There was a 27 percent increase in shootings, bringing the total so far this year to 354. That compares to 296 for the same period last year—an increase of 19.6 percent." more ›

Police are looking for a teenage trio responsible for a new mugging spree in the West Village and SoHo. The gang of two males and a female in their late teens went on a tear early one morning a couple weeks back, hitting up four victims in less than five hours. The Post reports the first robbery took place as the bar crowd spilled out onto the streets of Greenwich Village just after four in the morning on August 28th. The initial mugging occurred at Washington Place and Washington Square West and the three subsequent incidents were all within a short distance from there. The trio is then suspected of committing a fifth robbery on August 31st on West 9th Street. The gang is said to have flashed a knife at their targets, but none of the victims were injured. The two male suspects were described as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds and the girl thief as 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, police said. Last year the West Village was on alert after a spate of violent muggings went down in a small area. more ›

Last year 43% of readers voted that that NYPD's Sky Watch was useless. Now Animal New York reports on the retractable 20-foot-tall watchtower and now it's popping up in more and more neighborhoods (they name Crown Heights, Harlem and DUMBO as a few). More recently one of the temporary watchtowers has been erected on Graham Avenue and Moore Street, which they pinpoint as "the Bushwickish section of Williamsburg." Allegedly this one is for some robberies that have taken place in the area, but shouldn't it be moved over to Williamsburg proper for, you know, the recent rash of machete stabbings? We did, however, get some reader tips this week of one stabbing that took place on Bushwick Avenue and Flushing last weekend, where a young man was slashed with a box cutter, despite nothing being taken from him. more ›

The police are looking for 10 teenagers suspected in at least six robberies in Riverside Park and on Riverside Drive. WNBC reports that two to 10 suspects, black males ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, have been involved in each robbery. The most recent one was on Wednesday where "10 men assaulted a 28-year-old man in Riverside Park and stole his back pack," and there was another a few weeks ago where they "threw a stick in the wheel of a 26-year-old man's bicycle, causing the victim to fall off the bicycle" (then they assaulted and robbed him). Update: Via WABC 7, a list of the robberies and locations here. more ›

Williamsburg isn't the only Brooklyn nabe with a rash of violent assaults; Brownstoner reports that last Friday Pratt Institute students and faculty received a warning about an increase of violent activity near the Clinton Hill campus, as reported by the 88th Precinct. more ›

Given that ridership is at record highs, the MTA and police are proud that subway crime is down from a year ago, according to statistics obtained by the New York Post. more ›

We've admired the Wee Ninja from Shawnimals ever since we were looking for a visual to go with posts about the Staten Island Ninja Burglar. Wee Ninja is actually not a criminal in Shawn Smith's Ninjatown - Wee Ninjas only train, harvest Stealth Wheart, and fight the Wee Devils (or something along those lines). And now it turns out that there's an event at My Plastic Heart on Forsyth Street this Friday, Keep it... more ›

Even though two women accused of looting apartments during open houses were arrested last week, it's unclear whether some real estate agents have taken the crimes seriously enough to make sure their home showings are less crime-prone. The Post sent a reporter to some open houses, only to find it all too easy to potentially steal things like clothes and knickknacks. Of the four open houses the reporter and photographer went to, no ID's were... more ›

Just in time for the holidays - and holiday presents - the Ninja Burglar has returned! The nefarious nighttime nuisance that had Staten Island residents on their toes after hitting sixteen homes (some with homeowners in them) robbed two homes in the Todt Hill neighborhood over the weekend. The Advance reported that the "elusive serial bandit" first robbed a mansion on Louisa Lane. He entered through a second floor terrace door - while the... more ›

We knew open houses were fun for some people, but they offer goods ripe for the stealing. Last weekend, an Upper West Side apartment, where a real estate broker was holding an open house, was robbed by a pair of thieves posing as potential buyers. Prudential Douglas Elliman vice president Heddings posted about the devious crime on Monday on TrueGotham, noting that when the broker confronted the pair, they panicked and dropped "most but... more ›

A few days after showing surveillance video of a robber holding up a number of stores, police have arrested the suspect. Brooklyn resident Herbert Rodriguez was charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to 17 robberies, all below 23rd Street in Manhattan (there's a map at the end of this slideshow) over the past three months. In one video where the suspect robs a Murray Hill ice cream store, the bandana... more ›