Fake plumbers
Police are looking for two suspects who pose as plumbers to gain entrance to the apartments of elderly women. One of them asks to look at bathroom or kitchen plumbing while the other enters another room and steals whatever cash is to be found.
On Mon. Aug. 20 at noon, the pair convinced a woman, 81, to let them into her Stuyvesant Town apartment at 435 E 14th St. and stole $400 from her bedroom.
An hour later, they entered the apartment of a woman, 91, at 105 W. 72nd St., and made of with $1,500.
Both suspects were described as white or Hispanic, between 40 and 45 years old, and with mustaches and wearing baseball caps. One was said to be about 5’6” weighing between 170 and 200 pounds and wearing glasses. The other was described as 5’9” weighing about 220 pounds.
Sex assault in club
Security guards at Lotus held Marcelo De Barrosa, 26, a patron of the club at 409 W. 14th St., early Sun. Aug. 26 until police arrested him after a woman patron, 24, charged that De Barrosa followed her to the bathroom, groped her and wouldn’t let her leave until she was able to break free, police said. De Barrosa, described in a New York Post article as a 6’7” 200-pound former basketball player at Kansas State University, was freed on $15,000 bail pending an Aug. 31 court date.
Charge NBA player
Rafer Alston, 31, a Houston Rockets guard, was arrested on Tues. Aug. 28 and charged with second-degree assault for slashing the neck of a fellow patron of Stereo, the club at 512 W. 29th St., during an early morning brawl Mon. Aug. 27, police said. According to a Daily New article, a bouncer at the club said, “No one was stabbed,” but acknowledged that he had led Alston and his brother out of the club after the dispute. The victim, Wilbert Ashman, 41, picked Alston out of a lineup at the 10th Precinct. Alston was released on his own recognizance pending a Jan. 3, 2008, court appearance. He was arrested Aug. 5 in Houston in connection with an incident in which he is accused of spitting in the face of a parking attendant.
Con Edison holdup
Akeem Woodson, 20, a former Con Edison security guard, was arrested on Fri. Aug. 24 and charged with robbery and possession of stolen property in connection with a holdup at the Con Edison plant at 801 E. 14th St. at 10 p.m. Thurs. Aug. 23, police said. Woodson is charged with holding two of his former fellow security guards at gunpoint and making off with two surveillance cameras, according to the office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. He is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail pending an Aug. 30 court appearance.
Seek assault suspect
Police are seeking a suspect in three daylight slashing assaults on women, one in the Flatiron District and two on the Lower East Side. On Aug. 17 at 1:45 p.m., a tall slim black man between 5’8” and 5’ 11” slashed a woman, 32, on the right arm as she was walking west on W. 32nd St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. On the same day but an hour earlier on the Lower East Side, a man with the same description slashed a woman, 35, on the right arm as she was walking south on Chrystie St. south of Delancey St. The same suspect slashed another woman, 46, on the right arm as she was walking west on Grand toward Chrystie St. at 12:30 p.m. on July 16. The suspect was walking past the victims when he slashed them unprovoked and immediately fled.
Dye pack
A man wearing latex gloves walked into the Wachovia Bank branch at 120 Seventh Ave. at 17th St. shortly before 9 a.m. Thurs. Aug. 30, passed a teller a note saying he had a gun and demanded money, police said. The teller gave the robber, described as a white man in his 40s, about 5’11” and 200 pounds wearing a tan baseball cap, blue shirt and jeans, about $500 in a bag with a dye pack. The robber fled and caught a cab at 17th St. but the dye pack soon exploded. The driver stopped, and the thief jumped out and fled on foot west on 17th St., police said.
Blue Store frenzy
Police arrested Quassim Attouchi, 25, at 1:26 a.m. Tues. Aug. 28 outside The Blue Store, 206 Eighth Ave., and charged him with malicious mischief for kicking and breaking two glass front windows of the store that carries adult entertainment DVDs and sex toys.
Car break-in
A visitor from Dallas, Tex., 38, told police on Sun. Aug. 26 that a thief had broken into his car parked on the northeast corner of Eighth Ave. and 22nd St. three and a half weeks earlier and stole three suits and a sports jacket, two golf clubs, a watch and a digital camera with a total value of $6,345.
Bottle bash, bat threat
Police charged Towanna Williamson, 32, a patron at Fushion, a lounge at 215 W. 28th St., with assault for bashing another woman patron in the face with a bottle inside the club at 2:30 a.m. Tues. Aug. 28. Melissa Dodd, 23, was arrested at 4:15 a.m. Mon Aug. 27, for menacing another woman with a baseball bat outside of Scores, the club at 536 W. 28th St.
— By Albert Amateau
