Bike thieves in New York have been known to use everything from electric saws to Bic pen tops in order to separate bikes from pesky locks, but no method is more effective than convincing a cyclist to just hand over their ride. This is what happened to BikeBlogger Michael Green yesterday when, outside the eco-friendly Birdbath Bakery, he let a smooth-talking grifter talk him out of his beloved KHS (pictured): A Hispanic male about 5'8,......

Police believe two members of the Crips killed an off-duty corrections officer yesterday morning in order to steal his motorcycle. Kenneth Duncan, who had worked for the city's correction department for 17 years, was found shot in the head outside his Remsen Village home. According to a police source, the men approached Duncan and a friend in Duncan's garage as they were installing new exhaust pipes to his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 motorcycle. Duncan is described......

The owner of a Papa John's in Norwalk, CT uploaded footage of a delivery car being robbed of a GPS system and an iPod to Youtube, hoping the community would be able to help identify the thief. Co-owner John Koch explained that after he told customers and employees about the robbery--which took place in the parking lot (a man seems to case the parking lot and then grab the items from an unlocked Toyota......

Holy nunchuks! The Staten Island Advance reports "the NYPD has quietly closed the book on Staten Island's so-called Ninja Burglar case, after authorities started deportation proceedings against at least one Albanian man they believe to be connected to the string of break-ins." Before you wonder, "Hmm, should this have been called the 'Vampire Burglar' case?", please bear in mind that the Staten Island thief who was linked to nineteen separate burglaries typically wore a black......

Photo by Jake Dobkin. New stats from the NYPD show an 81.5% rise in graffiti-related complaints from 2006 to 2007 (pre-Splasher!), a year that graffiti arrests also went up 28%. Queens council member Peter Vallone, Jr. notes that, "we did an excellent job turning the tide against graffiti in the '90s and the beginning part of this century. Unfortunately, because of the lack of police officers, the fact that they have to do double duty......

A man who concealed a video camera in a shopping bag to film women as they got onto an escalator at the Grand Central subway station was arested for unlawful surveillance. The NY Sun reports that 21-year-old Jamarl Chambers would follow women up an escalator from the Lexington Avenue line. "The officers noticed Mr. Chambers ride up and down the escalator twice behind the women, each time placing the bag between their legs, before police......

A 40-year-old described as an off-duty corrections officer was shot to death in East Flatbush. The shooting occurred around 3:15 a.m. at East 87th Street and Avenue A. According to the AP, the police had "responded to a 911 call" and found the victim "lying in a side yard...shot once in the face." The victim, believed to have been gunned down inside the garage, died at Brookdale Hospital. Police suspect the shooting was related to......

A man who apparently fired at police after a traffic stop in Queens was charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Darnell Routier, a passenger in a livery cab with another person stopped by the NYPD's anti-gang unit at Foch Boulevard and 169th Street in Jamaica on Saturday night, had fled the car and initiated fire. Police returned fire, hitting him in the leg and arm. Routier is in stable condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital,......

Parents of the woman accused of killing real estate broker to the stars Linda Stein have been championing her innocence to news stations. Natavia Lowery's mother Lottie Lowery-Walsh and her stepfather Daniel Walsh spoke to WCBS 2 and WABC 7 about the 26-year-old's inability to have committed a crime. Lowery, who is being held without bail at Rikers, is accused of bludgeoning Stern to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment. Police claim that Lowery confessed......

Earlier in the week, unconfirmed reports of a knife-wielding assailant had Williamsburg residents on edge; South Williamsburg in particular has been flooded with patrolmen all week, and we’ve heard from readers who say they’ve been written summons for minor offenses like jaywalking. Though the 90th Precinct and the NYPD press liaison are unforthcoming about the dragnet, two officers walking their beat by the future Pies ‘n’ Thighs location on Driggs and South 4th Street told......

The Queens DA's office has charged a man with possessing and promoting child pornography after a tip from Illinois police that he had a how-to video on molesting children. Dominick Guerra, who lives in Ozone Park and works as a wedding/party DJ, was arraigned yesterday and could face up to six years in jail. According to the Queens DA's office, the Wheaton, IL police found two videos on the file-sharing site Limewire. One video depicted......

Police officials said that murder suspect Carlos Cruz told them was upset his on-off girlfriend was seeing other people, setting into motion a plan to kill her on a deserted Bronx street. Cruz allegedly said of Chelsea Frazier, "She was lying about what she was doing and she betrayed me." Cruz, who grew up in the Bronx, enlisted the help of his cousin Devon Miller to shoot Frazier on Sunday afternoon and stage it as......

Families of a murder victim and her ex-fiance are reeling from the revelation the ex-fiance and his cousin were behind the killing. Carlos Cruz, 36, admitted to paying his cousin $1,000 to kill his 18-year-old girlfriend, Chelsea Frazier, on a deserted Bronx street and stage it to look like a robbery, all in front of their 1-year-old son. Cruz, Frazier, and their son had traveled from Massachusetts to the Bronz, to visit Cruz's family and......

While an 11-year-old boy remain in critical condition after being shot in the face, Suffolk Country police believe his father was the real target. Newsday reports that Jeffrey Langhorn's father had apparently "fought with" a group of men "before one of them fired three shots." Suffolk Detective Edward Reilly said the father, also named Jeffrey Langhorne, had a machete and "began tussling with one or two of the men." The boy, who was sick and......

Police are looking for a man who tried to rape a woman entering her Sullivan Street apartment on Sunday morning. According to WABC 7, after the woman "opened the door to her apartment...the suspect forced his way in, pushed her onto the bed and began to choke her." He allegedly said he would rape her, but a neighbor who heard her cries rushed in and the suspect escaped. The suspect's image was captured on a......

Last we heard, rapper Foxy Brown, who has been on Rikers for about 8 months now, was trying to get an early release because of her "hearing problems". Deaf or not, something worked, and this week she'll be a free woman once again. After violating probation last year by attacking a couple of manicurists, she was sent to the slammer -- and even spent 40-days in solitary confinement for a confrontation with officers there. Now......

The police continue to investigate the Sunday shooting in the Bronx that claimed the life of an 18-year-old woman in front of her fiancé and their 1-year-old son. Chelsea Frazier's fiancé Carlos Cruz, 36, told his police they were fired upon when he struggled with a would-be robber, but Frazier's family question his version of events. Frazier and Cruz were in the Bronx from Massachusetts, to visit Cruz's relatives. They pulled over on a street......

This morning around 6:15 a.m., two people were shot outside the Manhattanville Houses at 1430 Amsterdam Avenue before the gunman shot himself. Now it turns out the shooter was a postal carrier who had gotten into a fight with the men. NY1 reports that 48-year-old Roberto Caballero "had a confrontation with two men," and shot one man three times in the chest and the other once in the head. Then Caballero went to his apartment......

What could the increased number of NYPD on foot in the South Williamsburg area mean? One reader tips us off to a new South Side stabber who may have the 90th Precinct working overtime. Ladies, hipsters, et al, even though Matchbox 20 and McLovin were bro-ing down south of the Williamsburg Bridge – the ultimate sign of gentrification – you still need to buddy up on those evening walks. A tipster writes:There is a man......

An 11-year-old boy is in serious condition after a gunman shot him in the face. The boy, Jeffrey Langhorne, who was home from school, had been sitting in his North Bellport home's kitchen at 1:30 p.m. when the gunman fired. Suffolk County police detective Daniel Molloy explained, "He was shot from the outside, the bullet went through the wall and struck the child that was in the house." The gunman used a semiautomatic weapon and......

It's not unusual for police officers to make side money by moonlighting with second jobs. Christian Torres is a rookie cop, however, who took that practice to a whole new level--allegedly robbing banks when off duty. On Thursday, Torres arrested in Pennsylvania less than a block from the bank he just robbed. Unaware the teller had tripped a silent alarm and that a police officer followed him, he showed his NYPD badge, thinking he was......

Photograph of the memorial service held for Minghui Yu earlier this week by Daniella Zalcman on Flickr The 14-year-old boy whose actions led to the death of a Columbia graduate student was arraigned in Family Court yesterday. An NYPD detective told the judge that Sheldon (whose last name is withheld due to his age) admitted to repeatedly punching 24-year-old Minghui Yu in the head "a couple times." But, according to Detective John Garvey, the......

According to Pennsylvania authorities, a 21-year-old NYPD rookie cop stole $113,000 from a bank in Mulhenberg Township yesterday morning. Christian Torres was charged with robbery and held on $500,000 bail; he was also suspended from the NYPD. The complaint described Torres wearing a black suit and approaching a bank employee who was arriving to work at 8 a.m., asking her about mortgage rates. She told him to wait until the bank opened, but he then......

Over a thousand people visited an Ettingville funeral home to pay their respects to 19-year-old Jessica Tush. Her ex-boyfriend Thomas Paolino was officially charged with her murder, as well as desecrating her body, and his bail was set at $1 million. Tush was last seen at her job at a Staten Island Mall store on Wednesday, and her body was found in a shallow grave in NJ's Pine Barrens on Friday. Tush was planning on......

Remy Ma, who is possibly more famous now for what landed her in jail than for her music, is still managing to make headlines from behind bars. A little first-degree assault and weapons charges aren't going to stand in the way of her dream wedding, to be held later this month on a little island off the coast of the Bronx. She and her beau, Brooklyn rapper Papoose, plan to get married on Rikers as......

A couple celebrating the renewal of their wedding vows ended up in jail after a reception fight with the band and Port Chester police. The Journal News reports that when the band refused to play music (they could only play when the DJ wasn't) bride Fabiana Reyes, 41, "knocked over and damaged the band's conga drums valued at $600, a speaker valued at $350 and other equipment." When police arrived, her husband, Elmo Jesus Fernandez......

Police have arrested Thomas Paolino in connection with the murder of his girlfriend whose body was found in NJ's Pine Barrens yesterday. According to reports, the family of 19-year-old Jessica Tush said that Paolino had been "increasingly abusive" in recent weeks. Hikers found Tush buried in a shallow grave in the Pine Barrens, which is about 55 miles away. A NJ medical examiner determined Tush was strangled, possibly with a cord. Hours later, Paolino was......

The middle-aged men who tried to steal the Yankees' opening day bunting from an upper deck agree their actions were "stupid" but hope the Yankees drop charges. Keith O'Rourke, 39, and John Bunjaporte, 41, were arrested on Tuesday night and the Yankees organization, seeking to make them an example of intolerable fan behavior, said they would revoke their season tickets. However, the pair bought the tickets from a scalper, so now the Yankees are still......

The police raided a Flushing warehouse and found $4.5 million worth of counterfeit goods. NY1 reported there were 50,000 pairs of sneakers, about 40,000 fake purses, and thousands of articles of clothing. The items' street value was $4.5 million, but if they were the authentic Nike sneakers or Chanel bags, the retail price would be closer to $16 million. The items, made in China, were apparently just about to head out to streets. It's believed......

Anne Hathaway's boyfriend surrendered to the police at the Midtown North station house to face check kiting charges. The Post reports that Raffaello Follieri's $215,000 company check bounced--and the account only had $39.98 in it. The Daily News reports the check, written out to John Morrongiello, did not clear a number of times, but finally did recently. Follieri's lawyers say since Morrongiello did not withdraw his complaint, the young Italian investor went willingly (but the......