Police Blotter
cinct were able to fi nd and chase down the
thief, who allegedly tossed away a clear ziplock
bag of marijuana right before police
apprehended him.
Park Ave. attack
On March 22, a 49-year-old man was
walking on the street at 10:30 p.m. when
he was suddenly punched in the face by
two strangers at the northwest corner of
Park Ave. and E. 89th St., police said.
After the victim fell to the ground, the
pair kept punching him and took his iPhone,
Apple Watch and headphones. The
dastardly duo then ran off north on Park
Ave.
The stolen items in total were worth
Cop was game to fi nd ‘missing’ teen
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
An Upper East Side police offi cer
found a missing teen by using a
gaming app.
On Sat., March 23, around 9:20
p.m., the boy’s parents reported that
their teenage son was missing.
Offi cers Strebel and Durney from
the 19th Precinct responded to the
family’s home, at 68th St. and Madison
Ave. The parents informed them that
they did not know where their 15-yearold
had gone and were unable to reach
him by phone.
According to police, the father and
mother were especially concerned
over their son’s whereabouts due to his
“psych history.” Offi cers did not elaborate
on the details of the teen’s mental
health.
While at the family’s home, Strebel
noticed that the missing teen’s computer
was logged into Discord, a Web site
that is an all-in-one voice-and-text-chat
platform for gamers. Strebel, a gamer
himself, quickly logged into his own
Discord account with his cell phone
and sent a friend request to the teen.
The missing boy accepted the cop’s
friend request. Strebel then sent him
a message letting the youth know that
he was a cop and that his parents were
worried and looking for him.
As it turns out, the boy did not run
away and was at a Shake Shack nearby.
It merely had all been a miscommunication
between the couple and their son.
Although the teen was safe, when he
returned home after receiving Strebel’s
message, his parents requested the
youth be taken to a hospital by ambulance.
Meanwhile, Strebel has earned kudos
for his good work on the incident —
and the new nickname “Gamer Cop.”
19th Precinct
Account cleaned out
When an Upper East Side man let a
maid into his home, he wasn’t expecting
that she would clean out his bank
account.
The 33-year-old hired a woman
from Maid Sailors Cleaning services
to tidy up his apartment. When he
let the woman into his home on the
morning of March 23, and left for
work nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
At about 10 a.m. he received a
phone call from Chase bank. There
had been a withdrawal of $1,000
from his savings account at an ATM
at 1368 York Ave., just two blocks
away, police said.
After work, the man searched his
apartment to see if anything had been
taken and noticed that his girlfriend’s
$2,000 diamond ring was missing.
Lick and run
The police are asking for the public’s
help in fi nding a man who licked
a woman’s face while she was sleeping
.O
n March 24, at 6:35 a.m. a
28-year-old woman woke up to a
stranger licking and kissing her face.
The intruder fl ed the apartment located
near E. 65th St. and First Ave.
after the woman screamed for him to
get out.
According to police, the man was
able to get into the victim’s apartment
through an “unsecured front door,”
which the victim had complained
about earlier to building management.
The suspect is described as darkskinned,
bearded and balding and
was last seen wearing a dark-colored
jacket and blue jeans.
Flakey fare
A thief didn’t quite think things
through when he stole his cab driver’s
cell phone.
On March 27, a driver picked up
a passenger in Far Rockaway who
wanted to be dropped off at 93rd St.
and First Ave. in Manhattan.
When the driver reached the location,
the passenger paid her the $100
fare and opened the driver’s-side back
door. But right before exiting the 2015
black Chevy, he reached over to the
driver’s seat and snatched the driver’s
iPhone X from between her legs.
The thief then took off and ran
toward Second Ave. and E. 94th St.
Nearby offi cers from the 19th Pre-
Burglar has baggage
A thief got away with stealing several
pricey bags after robbing an Upper West
Side luxury luggage store.
On March 11, at 7:19 a.m., an employee
at Tumi, located at 2205 Broadway, near
78th St., arrived at work only to fi nd the
front glass door shattered. Once inside,
she saw someone had stolen six small luggage
bags, including an Albany briefcase
worth $475, an Alpha Bravo Ariana briefcase
worth $425, a Shepard backpack
valued at $500, an Alpha Deluxe portfolio
costing $350, a $450 Alpha briefcase and
an Alpha wheeled bag worth $750.
Alejandra
O’Connell-Domenech
COURTESY N.Y.P.D.
$750.
20th Precinct
Cell phone thief
A man ripped off a Sprint store by ripping
phones off the wall, police said.
On March 18, at 5:45 p.m., a man
around age 30 entered a Sprint store at
2149 Broadway, at 76th St., and yanked
two iPhones — an iPhone SE and an iPhone
XS — off of their security lines attaching
them to the shelves.
He then fl ed the store with the phones,
worth $1,099 and $999, respectively, and
headed southbound on Broadway.
The 19th Precinct tweeted kudos to “Gamer Cop” Officer Strebel for
his good work in finding a teen whose parents feared he was missing.
4 April 4 - April 17, 2019 MEX Schneps Media