Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'" According to the AP, Senator Dianne Feinstein's office sent this email to other lawmakers:"A few offices on the House side have received a letter today addressed to 'Members of Congress' with a picture of a......

Images from surveillance footage via WNBC The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves. The bicyclist is of interest because a witness told the police he/she saw a bicyclist acting suspiciously. Earlier today, Police Commissioner Kelly said, "The individual (on the bicycle) was wearing a hood and dark colored......

Turns out the number parking placards sloshing around New York is over 142,000, twice the number guesstimated by Mayor Bloomberg’s office when he announced a 20% cutback on the placards, which allow police, teachers and civil servants to park for free at meters and many off-limits areas. The new total does not take into consideration the number of counterfeit and expired placards, and the city is still not done counting, so this preliminary total is......

If you're being arraigned for allegedly threatening the brother of the man your sister is accused of killing, should you really be yelling at the judge? That's what Natella Natanova did yesterday and she was removed from court. Natanova's sister Mazoltuv Borukhova (pictured, top) is accused of killing her ex-husband, Daniel Malakov (pictured, bottom). She and her husband were fighting over custody of their daughter (a court had awarded him temporary custody), and authorities say......

The Staten Island Advance has been following the turmoil brewing between a Wiccan family and their neighbors. The South Shore home at the center of the controversy is a duplex, half belonging to the Wiccan devotees, Ivy Colmer Vanderborgh, her husband and mother (the husband isn't Wiccan). Not hiding their practices, their property is decorated with a "witchy weather vane and cauldron out front," along with a massive stained-glass pentacle. Before the front yard cauldron......

Police are looking for a man suspected of assaulting two women in separate early Sunday morning incidents and released a surveillance video of him. One of the victims said after getting thrown to the ground she got away and called 911 - only for the attacker to try again as she walked on Bleecker Street. She told the Daily News, "I started walking and calling 911 on my cell ... and he attacked me again...I......

Undercover detective Hispolito Sanchez testified for a second day, with prosecutors playing the 911 call he made on November 25, 2006, the night police fatally fired at Sean Bell 50 times. Sanchez's colleagues detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard face manslaughter charges while detective Marc Cooper faces reckless endangerment charges in the bench trial at the Queens courthouse. Sanchez, who did not fire any of the 50 shots at Sean Bell or his friends, heard but......

Above images from WNBC 4, below right image from WCBS 2; bottom left image from Peter Haskell/WCBS 880 A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the......

The father who wanted to give up his 6-month-old baby out of desperation has told the police he wants to surrender. Carlos Rodas, 27, was overwhelmed when his 14-year-old girlfriend and the mother of the baby left him to care for their daughter, so he, his sister, and her boyfriend, a livery cab driver, worked out a plan for the driver to leave the baby at a Queens fire house. The story of the......

As details continue to emerge about the plot to fake a baby's abandonment in Queens, the fate of the baby has remained questionable. Now the Administration for Children's Services say the 14-year-old mother, who may not have known about the plot, may get the 6-month-old baby back. An ACS spokeswoman said, "The child has the right to be raised by the parent." The Post reports the mother, Yelemer Cosme Perez, is in ACS custody while......

News that the tale of an adorable abandoned baby was only half-true has resulted in a number of arrests and many questions. And it's possible the baby's 14-year-old mother may not have known about the scheme. Livery car driver Klever Sailema, who dropped off the baby at a Queens firehouse claiming she was abandoned in his cab, was charged with criminal facilitation and filing a false police report. He told the Post in an exclusive......

After the city was moved by the story of a baby abandoned in the backseat of a livery cab and how the driver dropped off the baby at a fire house, prompting the police and media to look for the baby's relatives, it turns out the livery cab driver was involved in the abandonment scheme. Driver Klever Sailema was arrested today, as were another man and woman. Oh, no. According to the police, "Sailema was......

When Staten Island Mall shoppers saw a mother beating her 3-year-old son Tuesday afternoon, some followed her to "make sure she didn't leave," reports the Staten Island Advance. Eventually, the police arrested 33-year-old Yesenia Hausler with felony assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Hausler apparently became angry when her son either wanted to play with a new toy or wanted to buy a new toy, and punched and slapped him so hard there......

Testimony picked up again yesterday in the trial of three police officers for fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2006. The prosecution called friends of victim Sean Bell and the commanding officer of the undercover operation to the stand. Bell was to be married on November 25, 2006, and the night before, he and his friends were celebrating with a bachelor party at Club Kalua, a topless bar in Jamaica, Queens. Friend Hugh Jensen said......

If only all crimes were this easy to solve. Last Friday, a woman robbed a North Fork Bank at 71st Street and New Utrecht Avenue in Dyker Heights. Now the police say she returned to the scene of the crime and returned the money yesterday. WNBC reports that apparently 48-year-old Catherine Kaczazanowski, who initially robbed the branch by passing a note to the teller, had a change of heart. Kaczazanowski gave most of the money......

The police are upset with Staten Island car owners. Why? Because many tend to leave their keys in the ignition, giving a free ride to thieves. Out of the 76 cars reported stolen for 2008, the NYPD says 24 of them had the keys in the ignition. And then another 10 vehicles were stolen because the keys were, per the Advance, in the "glovebox, on the ground of a parking lot or discovered inside a......

Images from WNBC Earlier this morning, around 1:30AM, police were chasing a stolen car in Brooklyn, at 93rd Street and 4th Avenue, but the 1997 Nissan slipped away, heading onto the Belt Parkway. The cops later found it on the Parkway at 65th Street, after it had crashed into a car carrying four people, killing one. The stolen car had "rammed into the back" of the other car. The three other passengers, including a......

Kids today may be spending too much time online and with their gadgets, but at least they can track down the jerks who rob them of their cellphones. Sixteen-year-old Yudelka Polanco managed to find the guy who stole her SIdekick Slide with a little detective work. Polanco was walking home in Williamsburg last month when a guy grabbed the phone. (The Post reports she had "no chance of catching the young thief" because she was......

In the wake of the deaths of three children on Saturday, apparently killed by their mother, the Nassau County Children's Protection Services supervisor was suspended today. Caseworkers had gone to Leatrice Brewer's apartment to investigate complaints, but she was not in. According to Newsday, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said CPS supervisor Eddie Arrendondo failed to send caseworkers on Saturday to follow up, "despite the warnings by relatives that the children were in mortal......

Photograph of protesters outside the Sean Bell shooting trial in Queens by Gary He/AP; the protesters are holding signs counting down the 50 shots fired Under intense scrutiny from the community and media, the trial of three police officers in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man started today. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges while Detective Mark Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment in the 2006 death of Sean Bell,......

A 29-year-old leaving his overnight shift with coworkers was fatally shot on East 39th Street yesterday morning. The incident occurred at 7:40AM, outside the Williams Club (per investigators, 1010WINS reports "the violence had nothing to do" with the 100-year-old club). Charles Ross, a Brooklyn resident, had just left the Darcel Group, a legal document company where he worked as a printer, and was heading to the subway. His friends say a man who walked up......

After the startling Midtown robbery yesterday afternoon in which a man was beaten and robbed of $149,000 in cash on the street, the police are still looking for the suspect. The victim, Seton Ijams, a music management company executive, had just visited a Chase bank, and police believe it may have been an inside job. Ijams was "jumped" by the gun-wielding robber outside the Starbucks at 120 West 56th Street and then dragged along the......

After the prison-yard murder of Larry Davis in upstate New York, most City papers noted his infamy and folk- or anti-hero status, but for the most part were content to portray him as a vicious thug, murderer, and all-around lowlife. Davis was shanked multiple times by another inmate at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster county New York. Davis was serving a 25 years-to-life sentence there for murder, even after he was acquitted of the......

There's trouble brewin' at everyones favorite chain coffee shop. WCBS is reporting that there has been a shooting at a midtown Starbucks. The BNN confirms with a location: 120 W 56th Street, and reports a possible robbery as well. The NYPD are currently still looking for the suspect. UPDATE: The shooting took place outside of the Starbucks and WNBC is reporting that the NYPD, based on preliminary information, believes the incident was part of a......

The Gothamist Newsmapindicated a "Police Car MVA W/ entrapment" occurred at Miller & Bellmont Avenues in Brooklyn at 2:49AM this morning. It turns out that it wasn't just a police cruiser - it was a cruiser, a driver trying to flee a traffic stop and fifteen parked cars. According to WABC 7, driver Albert Caban had allegedly refused to pull over when the police stopped him for driving without his headlights. When he tried to......

The man who attacked two women this weekend after picking them up under the guise of being a legit livery cab driver has been arrested. One of Torkieh Sadagheh's victims, Monica Maneiro of Morningside Heights, hailed his car after getting off work at Scores strip club on Saturday night; the 23-year-old recounts what happened next:"Out of nowhere he just stopped the cab and jumped in the back seat. He grabbed me and had his hand......

After a Bronx building super confessed to killing his 14-year-old daughter over the weekend, some are wondering why he had partial custody of his daughter after other previous violent incidents. Miguel Matias allegedly upset that his daughter had been texting and/or instant-messaging a boy and strangled her before stuffing her into his building's boiler. Matias called his cousin Pablo Castillo and his sister Jessica Aquino to come to the apartment. Aquino thought her brother was......

Photograph of police investigating the United Nations death by John Heilprin/AP After the discovery of a woman's body on the lawn of the United Nations building, the police have identified the woman as Maria DiBiase, who worked with the Austrian consulate. According to the Daily News, DiBiase "apparently jumped after showing up for work at the UN early Sunday." The 44-year-old appears to have leaped from the 19th floor and her body was found......

The NYPD's recruiting woes appear to be continuing through 2008, with a sharp drop-off in the number of candidates applying to sit for the Police Officer Exam, which is the first step to qualifying to enter the Police Academy. According to the New York Post, the number of test takers is down 20% from number of people who took the exam at the same time last year. "Slightly fewer than 20,000 have applied for the......

Georgia's been on a lot of people's minds since news of her disappearance became public in January, but she is now safe at home. The black cat escaped owner Ashley Phillips' pet carrier while they were waiting on the platform at 59th St. for a 6 train, on their way home from the Humane Society where Georgia had just been spayed. She survived 25 days in the subway tunnels before being found and rescued. The......