You know how you should never let strangers into your apartment building? Even the police say, "If you live in an apartment don't be polite and hold the lobby door open for a stranger who has been waiting." But in one Queens building, one resident's stranger turned out to be another resident and the whole thing turned into a fight, one of them getting beaten up and the other arrested. more ›

When shots rang out near his firehouse in Hempstead, Long Island, Michael Charles did what any red-blooded fire chief would have done: grab a gun, form a posse, and saddle up (in an SUV). But for his efforts, Charles and FDNY firefighter Brian Schuck, who joined in the armed manhunt, have been charged with second-degree menacing and fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon charges. (A third member of the posse is expected to be arrested soon, Newsday reports.) In their search for the gunman, the three men allegedly stopped and frisked an innocent man, 29-year-old Kenneth Powell, who happens to be the son of Hempstead Village Trustee Perry Pettus. more ›

The music has stopped at McCarren Park Pool, the hipsters have moved on to other concrete pastures, and it looks like crooks have been taking advantage of the area. The Brooklyn Paper has two accounts of recent muggings, reporting that "a thug shoved a woman and stole her purse at around 2 am...he threw her to the ground and warned, 'If you don’t stop struggling I’m really gonna hurt you.'" That same day someone attacked a 63-year-old man, demanding, in Polish, “Give me money.” When the man refused he was left with a black eye, but the police now have that suspect in custody. Looks like we're going back to Vigilante times, kids, at least until 2011. more ›

In New York, there's the Staten Island Ninja Burglar, who stealthily entered homes to steal money and other valuables. In NJ, there's the would-be Shinobi ninja warriors who were trying to rid the streets of drugs, by way of threatening letters. more ›

The New York Post profiles a West Village man who's taken to vandalizing cars with incessant anti-theft alarms. Harry Schroder is a retired art director who likes to spend his afternoons practicing the piano in his home on Charlton St. Occasionally, however, he is interrupted by a car alarm. If it goes on long enough, Schroder leaves the car's owner a note in black magic market on an 18-inch by 24-inch posterboard which he sticks... more ›