Out the window
A resident of a first-floor apartment at 305 W. 20th St. near Eighth Ave. left home Friday morning Dec. 7 and returned at 12:40 a.m. that night to find a window open and two laptop computers and a digital camera with a total value of $6,100 gone, police said.
Clubland miscreants
Police charged Kevin Cooper, 28, with menacing at 12:20 a.m. Sat. Dec. 8 while two bouncers were ejecting him from 532 W. 22nd St., where three clubs are located. He reportedly said, “I have a bullet for you and for you,” and “If you knew my record, you wouldn’t be messing with me.”
Police charged Daniel Pangione, 26, with public urination and resisting arrest at 1:23 a.m. Sat. Dec. 8 outside 511 W. 28th St., where the club Retox is located. On Sunday morning Dec. 9, a woman, 23, who worked at Retox told police that Gary Malhotra groped her breast and buttocks and said when she protested, “You have to let me. I’m your boss.”
At 3:30 a.m. Dec. 8, police arrested Kate Dondero, 23, outside of 609 W. 29th St., where Sol is located, for possession of cocaine.
Sentenced in extortion
Joseph Strillacci, 46, charged in July with forcing the landlord of a Union Sq. commercial building to lease him the property at half the going rate, was sentenced to four to eight years in prison on Thurs. Dec. 6 after a plea of guilty to grand larceny and attempted extortion.
Strillacci had told the owner of 857 Broadway on the east side of Union Sq. at 17th St. that he wanted to lease the property for 10 years at $22,000 per month for the first year with annual three percent increases. The estimated rate for comparable property was $45,000 per month. Strillacci was charged with threatening to hurt the landlord unless he signed a lease on those terms.
The landlord alerted the District Attorney’s office and took part in the investigation that led to Strillacci’s arrest.
Acquitted in Palladium slay
David Lemus, 38, was acquitted on Thurs. Dec. 6 in his second trial of the 1990 murder of a bouncer outside the Palladium on E. 14th St., for which he has spent more than 13 years in prison. In 2005, the convictions of Lemus and a co-defendant, Olmedo Hidalgo, of the murder of the bouncer, Marcus Peterson, were thrown out after new evidence emerged. Hidalgo was freed and deported, but Manhattan District Attorney re-tried Lemus, who was found not guilty of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder. The Palladium closed in 1998, and the former movie theater site was redeveloped as a New York University residence.
FIT theft
A laptop that was delivered to Fashion Institute of Technology, 236 W. 27th St., at 3 p.m. Wed. Dec. 5 was discovered missing on Mon. Dec. 10. The room where it was located is unlocked during the day, and seven people have keys to the room, according to a police report.
Storage theft
A woman who rents a storage room at Manhattan Mini Storage, 541 W. 29th St., told police that she found the lock to the room broken on Thurs. Dec. 6 and sports equipment, speakers, Tiffany crystal, silver- and gold-trimmed glassware, and household silver with a total value of $40,000 had been stolen.
Asked directions
A woman told police that she was at the northeast corner of Seventh Ave. at 23rd St. at 8:30 p.m. Sun. Dec. 9 when a man stopped her and asked, “Where is the Chelsea Hotel?” At the same time, an accomplice dipped into her handbag and took her wallet with $80.
Hot pepper heist
A Whole Foods security guard stopped Jatin Patel, 47, at 8:40 p.m. Sun. Dec. 9 trying to walk out of the store at 250 Seventh Ave. with a container of hot peppers from the prepared food table without paying for it. He had been arrested on Sat. Dec. 1 for shoplifting at the Whole Foods on Seventh Ave. and received a trespass warning. He was charged with the more serious crime of burglary for the Dec. 9 offense because he violated the trespass warning.
Crooked guest
A Chelsea man invited a stranger he had met at the Blue Store, the porn shop on Eighth Ave., at 3 a.m. Sat. Dec. 8 to his apartment on W. 16th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. They began drinking and the host fell asleep. He awoke at 11 a.m. Sunday to find the guest gone, along with a down jacket, a coat, two laptop computers, a wall statue and two Coach leather bags, with a total value of $3,750, police said.
Car break-in
A man who parked his 2005 Jeep on 23rd St. west of Eighth Ave. at 1:30 p.m. Sun. Dec. 9 returned that evening to find the rear passenger window broken and a laptop computer that he left on the back seat stolen, police said.
— Albert Amateau
