Queens
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A man was shot when he returned to his Rochdale home and found three men in black ski masks carting away his electronics, sources said.
He said he yelled at the burglars toting his flat-screen TV, Xbox and speakers from his house at Bennett Court and Crandall Avenue at 5:50 a.m. last Wednesday.
One crook reacted by screaming, “Hit him! Hit him!” and another pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot the homeowner in the leg as the trio fled empty- handed, sources said.
The man was treated for minor injuries at North Shore Hospital, cops said.
Investigators found a shell casing, one black ski mask and all of the electronics at the scene.
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A man was charged with raping an adolescent girl twice in Elmhurst nearly two years ago, sources said.
The girl told police that Alejandro Garcia, 32, attacked her in a relative’s home and threatened to kill her and her family if she ever told anyone, the sources said.
Garcia was charged Wednesday with raping a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child, court records show.
He was ordered held in lieu of $20,000 cash bail or $30,000 bond.
The Bronx
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A man who had left his car running with the door unlocked and the keys in the ignition found himself chasing his own vehicle up a Kingsbridge sidewalk as a stranger drove off in it, authorities said.
The man told cops he parked the 2004 Honda Odyssey on Creston Avenue at 7:45 a.m. Jan. 25.
Shortly after that, José Santiago, 30, noticed the free ride, hopped in and took off, court papers say.
But he soon jumped the curb and smashed into a tree, demolishing the front end of the vehicle, the records show.
Santiago was charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, criminal mischief and reckless driving.
The car sustained more than $3,000 in damages, according to the court documents.
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Three armed robbers tied up a Tremont jewelry store’s two workers, threatened to shoot them, cleared out a wall display of valuables and fled, police said.
The trio had just entered Joey Jewelry, on East Tremont Avenue near Mapes Avenue, at 2:25 p.m. Tuesday when one displayed a silver semiautomatic handgun, sources said.
He pressed the weapon to one employee’s back before forcing both workers into a back room, the sources said.
He and his accomplices then allegedly used zip ties to bind them and went about the business of robbing the place.
The workers were not injured. There had been no arrest by last night.
Manhattan
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A surly teen added insult to injury when he spat at a Washington Heights Laundromat worker and then took his wallet, police said.
A suspect was loitering in the establishment on St. Nicholas Avenue near West 160th Street at 11:05 p.m. on Jan. 13 when the 66-year-old worker asked him to leave, cops said.
Instead, the punk spat in the man’s face, knocked him to the floor, grabbed his wallet and took off, running north on St. Nicholas Avenue, police said.
The Laundromat employee was not seriously hurt, cops said.
The teen was described as about 16 years old and 5-foot-11 and, when last seen, was wearing a gray-and-red hoodie.
Brooklyn
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An erratic driver who was pulled over in Sunset Park, found out the hard way exactly what is meant by the old adage “Possession is nine-tenths of ownership,” sources said.
Lewrys Espinal, 33, allegedly failed to signal while pulling a Lincoln Town Car out into traffic near Second Avenue and 48th Street at noon on Jan. 14.
Cops stopped him and asked whether he had anything in the vehicle that shouldn’t be there, the sources said.
Espinal allegedly produced a gravity knife and told the officers, “This is in here, but it’s the owner of the car’s.”
That excuse didn’t cut it with the officers, who arrested him on the spot and charged him with weapon possession, the sources said.
Staten Island
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A man was caught trying to burglarize a Mariner’s Harbor business — after its owner heard a drilling sound and responding officers noticed that the building’s basement door and frame had been sawed open, court records say.
Robert Summa, 46, was found in the shop on Richmond Avenue at about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 25 with a duffel bag full of saw blades, according to the court documents.
Summa had also come prepared with two saws, a hammer and an extension cord, the records state.
He was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools.