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March 16, 2010
Customers getting ‘Malled’
The Brooklyn Paper, Police Blotter
by Stephen Brown
During the same week that Bruce Ratner was breaking ground on the Atlantic Yards project, a land grab facilitated by phony claims of pervasive criminal activity in the project footprint, crooks were once again running wild in his nearby shopping malls.
Atlantic Frantic
More troublemakers stalked the Atlantic Terminal Mall at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues last week. Here’s a roundup:
• A thief swiped a woman’s purse and handed it off to an accomplice, who fled in a black livery cab in front of the mall on March 8. The victim told cops that she was buying a soda at around 4:30 pm when the thief struck. A struggle between the victim and perp concluded with the thief handing the bag off to his partner in crime. The get-away snatcher got $500.
• Will people ever learn to mind their belongings at the uber-sketchy Target? A careless woman left her purse at the cash register of the department store, only to return a minute later and find it had been snatched on March 10. The victim told cops that she was checking out at around 3:35 pm when she realized that she had left her purse. She returned within a minute, but her bag, containing $650 and a cellphone, was long gone.
And on the very day that Bruce Ratner was "officially" pinching the homes and businesses of Brooklyn property owners, and making off with hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies as well, a hapless would-be shoe thief ran into the 300-or-so cops on hand to keep protestors out of Ratner's "Green Zone."
• A misguided youth attempted to rob the Payless Shoes on March 11, but was busted by cops.
Police said that the 15-year-old troublemaker entered the shoe store at around 4:30 pm and pretended he had a gun. But while the thug was attempting to swipe cash from the register, Officer Omisanya Basil arrived and arrested him.
Posted by eric at March 16, 2010 10:54 AM