Results tagged “teens”

Pre-Halloween vandals ransacked Carroll Gardens on Friday in one of the least intelligent fits of teenaged angst that we've heard of in a long time. The neighborhood blog Pardon Me For Asking reports that three teens ran wild on Court Street at around 2 am, "overturning newspaper stands at the corner of President Street, throwing planters they found in front gardens onto the street, and smashing the Marco Polo Valet Parking sign right through the back of this car."

When they're not shooting themselves in the groin, threatening to kill the president, or trying to blow up Starbucks, the city's rebellious youngsters continue to commit the less sensational crime of burglary. Cops arrested two teenagers suspected of ransacking dozens of lower Manhattan apartments in separate burglary sprees.

A Long Island math teacher, who was arrested in July for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in an elementary school parking lot, is being charged with yet another sex crime. Daniel Rothbard, 28, was out on bail for the first alleged statutory rape when he was arrested again yesterday. Police say that two weeks before the parking lot incident, Rothbard allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl and her 14-year-old friend to his house, where he resided with his pregnant wife. Prosecutors tell Newsday the 14-year-old walked in on him having sex with the younger girl. None of the victims were his students; Rothbard met them on MySpace posing as a 17-year-old with the screen name "DJ" or "D to the J." According to CBS2, the house is now empty and for sale, and Rothbard's lawyer says his client is on suicide watch and pleading not guilty. But Nassau County Police Lt. John Allen expects to find more victims, and the Valley Stream school district has barred Rothbard from school property and prohibited him from having any contact with children or their parents. He's currently behind bars in lieu of $600,000 bail, an amount his lawyer called excessive.

Police believe drag racing caused a spectacular crash on Francis Lewis Boulevard that left two teens and 11-year-old boy hospitalized. Two cars, a BMW and a Lexus, were seen speeding around 11 p.m. last night when they knocked into each other, sending the BMW spinning into a parked van. Witness Peter Boudouvas tells CBS 2, "I saw one car bump the car on the left, took 2 or 3 spins, van moved 30 feet up. I jumped out, called 911 and asked nobody to move." According to ABC 7, police had to cut down a tree to get through to the wreckage. Another witness says the BMW was "doing 60 to 70 mph...Things like this happen all the time." The 18-year-old driver of the BMW and two male passengers, ages 18 and 11, were rushed to Booth Memorial Hospital in Queens. The 11-year-old is in critical condition, and the 16-year-old driver of the Lexus walked away with minor injuries. He was given a breathalyzer test (it came back negative) and is being questioned by police, but he's already in violation of the law for driving without a licensed adult in the car.

Back in April Bobby Vaughn's new surf shop, FTW (Fuck the World) in Rockaway Park, was getting some press. Vaughn told the NY Times that the "main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster." Vaughn doesn't have a pristine record, but he said he's now "strictly positive" and has turned his life around. NY Mag (who notes that "surfing in Rockaway can be incredibly unpleasant") checked in on the scene he's creating just after Memorial Day. They say that just two months after it opened, the shop is already a default hangout for local teens. "Vaughn plans to turn his surf shop into a clubhouse. He wants to build a tiki lounge in the backyard and a gym in the basement for members of his FTW crew to train on days when the surf is flat. By the end of this year, he hopes to have a team of about 25 kids. The top members will receive a salary, FTW clothing, and money to travel to some of the best surf breaks in the world." So for any of those who thought he'd be leading these kids down a dangerous path, it seems he's redeemed himself. Now let's start working on saving those cute beach houses in the area, okay?

An Israeli Army major, on vacation in New York with her family, was injured in the head when a giant rock smashed the windshield of the cab she was riding in on the FDR Tuesday night. The rock, allegedly dropped by two teens from an overpass near 71st Street, sent shards of glass into Gilat Raz's face above her left eye. Her 11-year-old daughter, Raz's sister and nephew were in the back and were unharmed. Raz, 41, tells the Daily News, "I've been driving in the West Bank, I've been in Gaza. I never imagined that New York would be where I'd get hit by a rock. It was scary how much I bled. The children were hysterical."

A social studies teacher at an upstate high school was arrested for allegedly sending explicit messages—like "naked pictures please" and "these are so hot give me some more baby"—to a 16-year-old student. And apparently the Newark Valley High School teacher had already been warned by the principal not to contact the girl! John M. Puglisi, 29, was "charged with one count of using a cell phone in an effort to engage someone younger than 18 in sexual activity. " He also reportedly bought the girl the cell phone. Earlier this week, the Post had an article warning peoples about the dangers of teen "sexting," reporting, "A nearly naked 15-year-old Manhattan girl bent over in front of a mirror, put a camera between her legs and, click, sent a photo of her nude backside to her boyfriend - who then had no problem forwarding the pics to The Post." It's unclear whether a clicking noise for the camera phone would prevent teens from making bad decisions.

Yesterday, the Suffolk County DA's office said that a group of teens, already charged with fatally beating a Hispanic man to death last November, had been on a 13-month-long "hate spree," targeting and terrorizing Latinos. DA Thomas Spota said, "All of the defendants participated in what we consider to be a violent and racially driven pastime" and Newsday detailed some of the crimes:

Last July, at least two of the teens beat a Hispanic man unconscious, stealing his money and shoes.

Continue reading "More Hate Crime Accusations for Patchogue Teens"

Police grabbed an 18-year-old suspect for committing three robberies inside an NYU dorm near Union Square Monday and Tuesday. Juan Molina, not an NYU student himself, allegedly got away with four laptops, two iPods, a digital camera, a necklace and a credit card by walking right into students' rooms without even having to force his way in. He just waited for opportune moments to duck in rooms at the Carlyle Court building near 16th Street, robbing one student while they were taking a shower. But after using the stolen credit card at a nearby drug store, cops identified him by the description of his red hair after having Molina on record for a burglary last year. NYU sophomore Brittany Barnard told the Post, "It's not that surprising. People leave their doors open here. I used to leave my door open all the time—but not anymore."

Four teenagers in Queens have been arrested in a series of brutal muggings, one of which was caught in graphic detail on a surveillance video. They are accused of robbing six men in a string of violent incidents over the last two weeks. One of the victims told NY1, "I felt like I was going to die. You panic. You think, how could this be happening to me? You see it in the movies and you really don't think its going to happen to you."

MSNBC has a long trend-piece about how increasingly younger girls are getting bikini waxing. How young? Well, Wanda Stawczyk, who runs Wanda's European Skin Care on West 57th Street, offers discounts for clients as young as 8, and she says pre-teen business is booming, telling the Post that "in 10 years waxing children will be like taking them to the dentist or putting braces on their teeth." Her company’s website says it all:

"Virgin-waxing for children 8 years old and up who have never shaved before. Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just 2 to 6 sessions. Save your child a lifetime of waxing... and put the money in the bank for her college education instead

And leave it to the Post to enlighten those readers “interested in whether there's even hair to wax. Pre-puberty hair, called ‘velus,’ is a fine, light pigmented hair. When a child hits puberty - which these days is happening to kids as young as 9 - the hair coarsens and darkens.” And must be torn out by the roots if you don't want the other girls to laugh at you!

Hey teens! Cutting, huffing and BB guns are such a didgeridon't. Know what’s cool? New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: As of today, the department is now one of the cool new people on MySpace, and it’s looking for friends. The actual profile name is NYC Teen Mindspace, and according to deputy commissioner Dr. David Rosin, the goal is to “reach out to young people where they socialize, in a style they can relate to” so they can get help with problems like depression, drugs, and dating violence.

Six teenagers, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years old, were arrested yesterday for mugging, attacking, attempting to carjack, and overall menacing in Nassau County. And the police say they were inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV.

We heard there was a huge fight in Newark, with hundreds of teens involved and then a stolen police car that hit two people in the crowd. It now turns out that the situation was less crowded but still with a stolen police car.

A 17-year-old who was given a 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 as a starting-college gift was driving in Queens when the car hit a guard rail, "became airborne for 100 feet," and finally hit a concrete pillar. Two passengers, 18-year-olds Devindra Harilal and Christopher Karan, were killed.