Manhattan
A prolific thief but unfortunate gum chewer has been busted in the disappearance of a $3,598 jacket from a downtown boutique, authorities said.
Troy Cooper, 32, entered the John Varvatos store at 315 Bowery on Oct. 21 with a jacket draped over his arm, swapped it for one he had pulled from a display, then just waltzed back out into the street, cops said.
But investigators found some chewed gum in a pocket of the jacket left behind, and tests linked it to Cooper’s DNA, court papers state.
He was arrested on March 26 and charged with grand larceny.
But investigators say he also snatched two purses from a Varick Street club in SoHo on Dec. 15, and his priors include a Dec. 3, 2008, arrest for stealing two leather jackets, total worth $1,045, from the Macy’s in Herald Square.
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Police yesterday released this photo of a suspect in three attempted bank robberies within 30 minutes last Friday.
“F–k you,” the robber scribbled on a withdrawal slip he handed to a teller in the Citibank branch at 322 West 23rd St., in Chelsea, just before noon, cops said. He then allegedly added a second note that read: “Robbie, bitch. Don’t f–k around or we all will die fast.”
But the plucky teller locked his drawer and informed a manager, who dialed 911, and the suspect fled empty-handed, police said.
Not to be outdone, however, he headed over to the PNC branch at 11 Penn Plaza in Midtown — only to fare no better there.
Next stop: three blocks over, to the HSBC branch at 1350 Broadway. This time, he fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, authorities said.
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A teen yesterday told cops she was sexually assaulted in Inwood by an acquaintance from an online dating site, authorities said.
The 18-year-old woman met her date, believed to be in his teens, and asked him to hang out at her apartment at about 4:30 p.m., cops said. The victim said he began touching her inappropriately before fleeing, authorities said.
She was not injured, but was taken for an evaluation at Allen Pavilion Hospital, cops said.
The Bronx
A motorist allegedly reeking of booze slammed his vehicle into a concrete column in Mott Haven while attempting to turn onto the Third Avenue Bridge, authorities said.
Cornelius McCarthy, 54, was on East 135th Street near Lincoln Avenue when he crashed at 12:28 a.m. on March 28, court papers say.
The responding officers said that McCarthy at first told them that he had been “cut off” by another vehicle but that later, in the 45th Precinct station house, he admitted to having downed “four to five glasses of vodka” before getting behind the wheel.
A breath analysis revealed his blood-alcohol content to be .087, over the legal limit of .08, so he was arrested and charged with DWI, court papers state.
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A man was found stabbed to death in his Mott Haven home yesterday, cops said.
The 63-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was face-up on a sofa in the Patterson Houses on East 143rd Street with slash wounds to his torso, police sources said.
Brooklyn
Detectives are investigating whether a 53-year-old woman found dead in her Brownsville apartment died from a drug overdose, police sources said.
The woman’s boyfriend reported finding her face down in the bedroom of her Amboy Street home, near Hegeman Street, at about 11 p.m. Sunday, the sources added.
The city Medical Examiner’s Office said it would perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Staten Island
Authorities rounded up 19 alleged fraudsters who, over a four-year period, bilked the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development out of some $377,000 in tax-funded subsidies.
And among the tenants arrested at the Park Hill Apartments complex and charged with tax evasion was Juliette Joyner — whose employer just happens to be the city Housing Authority, records show.
Joyner, 56, got more than $22,000 in rent subsidies between 2006 and 2009 and claimed she made only $9,731 in 2008 when, in fact, she earned $55,769 from her job, investigators allege.
“It’s disgraceful that someone who works for an agency that is supposed to be committed to helping low- and moderate-income families, is stealing from them,” said District Attorney Dan Donovan.
Also arrested were Tanya Green, building manager of Elbee Gardens, at 1950 Clove Road, and Juan Gomez, the superintendent there. They are accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to “bump” prospective tenants to the top of a waiting list for subsidized apartments.