By Tom Tracy
Pistols at Penny Ridge A ten-year-old Brooklyn Heights girl and her mother were terrorized at gunpoint when they interrupted a robbery at the Penny Ridge grocery at 82 Clark Street, cops from the 84th Precinct were told. Workers at the store said that three black males entered the store at 8 p.m. on January 23 and ordered a sandwich. A few minutes later, one of the thieves pulled a gun and demanded that a worker empty the two registers. The brutes were pulling the cash from the registers when a 10-year-old girl from Cranberry Street entered the store with her mother. Almost instinctively, the gunman turned his pistol on the two women, pointing the gun at the 10-year-old’s head, before fleeing the store. No injuries were reported. Police said that the gunman made off with $2,100 in receipts. Bergen creeper sought A woman from the 200 block of Bergen Street told police that she spotted a burglar rummaging through her home after she went to investigate a noise. The woman said that she was on the third floor of the building just before 2 p.m. on January 22 when she heard the sound of glass breaking on the first floor. She had just reached the top of the stairs when she saw a heavy-set, 5’10” white or Hispanic male in a blue woolly hat walking around the second floor. Startled, the woman locked herself into a bedroom and called the homeowner. When police arrived, the thief was gone. At least one bedroom had been ransacked and $50 in cash, as well as an Apple iPod, was missing, officials said. Cops are asking anyone with information regarding this incident to call the 84th Precinct at (718) 875-6811. Senior accosted, robbed A 65-year-old man was jumped and robbed of his cell phone during a bizarre break-in. The victim told police that he was entering his home, located on the 240 block of Bergen Street, at 9:30 a.m. on January 22 when two thugs grabbed him from behind and forced him inside. One thief ordered the other to hold the senior while he went to the bedroom looking for valuables. Just before leaving, the two men forced the senior into the basement, where they bound him with an electrical cord. The thieves ran off with a cell phone, computer and digital camera, officials said. The senior managed to free himself from his bonds, but was otherwise uninjured, officials said. Robbed in hallway A 27-year-old man was arrested on robbery charges Monday after he allegedly robbed a woman inside a 4th Avenue building. Officials allege that Milton Arroyo, 27, had an argument with his 39-year-old victim inside a neighborhood grocery at 1 p.m. on January 22 before following her into a building on the 40 block of 4th Avenue, where he forced her to hand over the $120 she had in her pockets. Cops arrested the 27-year-old a short time later, charging him with robbery. What about Bobcat? If you’re wandering around the neighborhood and see someone doing donuts in a Bobcat, call police immediately. Chances are it’s the $36,000 piece of equipment that was stolen from a construction site at the corner of 4th Avenue and Warren Street. Workers for Tona Development and Construction told police that they closed the site at 9 p.m. on January 13. When they arrived at the site at 7 a.m. on January 15, the locks were cut and the Bobcat was missing, officials said. Cops are asking anyone with information to call the 78th Precinct at (718) 636-6411. All calls will be kept confidential. $100 taken away A homeless man was arrested Saturday after he allegedly robbed a 26-year-old woman of $100. Police said that 46-year-old Carlos Peroza and another unapprehended male allegedly grabbed their victim behind a building on the 200 block of Nevins Street at 4:15 a.m. on January 20. Responding officers rounded up and arrested Peroza without incident at the corner of Nevins and Butler streets, charging him with robbery. His alleged victim, a resident of Bond Street, was not harmed, officials said. Storage steal Thieves broke into a storage facility on the 300 block of 3rd Avenue last week, taking over $15,000 in miscellaneous clothes, officials said. A 27-year-old owner of the storage garage claimed that he had over 60 boxes of clothes in the shed on the afternoon of January 12 before someone in a gold SUV came to the location and forced his way inside. The thief was last seen loading up his SUV and speeding off, officials said. Wipe Out Graffiti As the ongoing war against graffiti continues, a $500 reward is being offered to anyone with information about graffiti vandals in their neighborhoods. The hefty reward is part of the city’s new push to rid New York of graffiti vandals. Graffiti is one of the leading quality of life complaints brought to police. Anyone with information about graffiti vandalism is urged to contact either 311 or 911. School raid Thieves broke into P.S. 27 last week, taking thousands of dollars in computer equipment, cops from the 76th Precinct were told. School officials said that they were not sure how the thieves got into the Red Hook school, located on 27 Huntington Place. Workers said that all doors and windows were locked and secured at 7 p.m. on January 18. But when they opened the school up at 6 a.m. the following day, they discovered that someone had snuck inside. Cops were told that at least three windows to classroom doors were bashed in and the library was vandalized. But the worst was yet to come: the thieves fled the school with a computer cart, 12 laptop computers, a printer, a DVD player and two cell phones, investigators were told. Police believe that the thieves fled through an exit that leads onto Nelson Street. Cops are asking anyone with information to call the 76th Precinct at (718) 834-3211. All calls will be kept confidential. Hamburglar hunt Cops are looking for the gun-toting thief who held up an area McDonald’s Saturday afternoon. Police said that the suspect, described as a 6’2”, 200-pound, dark-skinned black male sporting a goatee and a waist-length jacket, entered the eatery on the 300 block of Hamilton Avenue at 1:30 p.m. on January 13 and pulled a gun on a cashier. The man demanded to see the manager, but settled for the money the cashier took from her register, officials said. The gunman was last seen heading over Hamilton Avenue toward Red Hook. No injuries were reported. Cops are asking anyone with information regarding this incident to call the 76th Precinct at (718) 834-3211. All calls will be kept confidential. Jumped from behind A man in a red-hooded jacket is being sought for robbing and throttling a 25-year-old woman as she entered her 6th Avenue apartment building. The victim told police that she was stepping into the lobby at 4 a.m. on January 15 when a black male in his 20s jumped her from behind and grabbed her by the throat. “I won’t hurt you, give me your money,” the thug said before robbing the woman of $30 in cash, her cell phone and some jewelry. Police said that the victim was not seriously injured. Cops are asking anyone with information to call the 78th Precinct at (718) 636-6411. All calls will be kept confidential. Cigar steal Over $1,000 of expensive cigars were stolen from an area distributor last week, cops from the 78th Precinct were told. Workers at Delta Distributors, located at 567 Union Street, told police that someone snuck into their establishment just before 3 p.m. on January 15 and stole three cases of exotic cigars worth $350 apiece. But cops are close to smoking the suspects out. Witnesses told investigators that the thief was seen riding off in a red Nissan Suburban. As this paper went to press, cops were tracking the owner of the car down through DMV records. Sources said that the car may belong to someone living in the Fort Greene area.
