Manhattan
A man tried to rob a Murray Hill cellphone store at gunpoint, but fled empty-handed when he couldn’t open the display cases, authorities said.
The would-be thief walked into the BC Wireless store on Madison Avenue near East 36th Street just before 3 p.m. May 14 and asked the clerk how much iPhones cost, police said.
When the worker tried to help, the man whipped out a gun and ordered the clerk to the floor, cops said.
He then tried to swipe some phones displayed behind the counter, but ran off when he was unable to open the cases.
The crook, believed to be 18 to 20 years-old, has dreadlocks and was last seen wearing a dark hoodie with a white logo on the left breast, and light-colored pants.
The worker was unharmed.
A woman standing outside a tony Tribeca apartment building was the victim of a terrifying robbery, sources said.
The 29-year-old woman was listening to music in front of Truffles on Desbrosses Street at 2:50 a.m. Saturday when a man charged at her and put his hands around her stomach.
A second man then grabbed her phone and ran toward West Street, where the duo jumped into a Lexus and fled.
Before they took off, one of the suspects turned back, holding what appeared to be a gun.
A boxcutter-wielding thief bizarrely sliced his own arm in a bid to steal a man’s ATM card in a Financial District bank, law-enforcement sources said.
The incident unfolded when one crook approached the 38-year-old New Jersey man inside the Wells Fargo Bank vestibule on Broad Street at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and announced that he was a cop, according to the sources.
He demanded the man go with him, the sources added, but when the victim refused, the thug shoved his face, and a second suspect suddenly approached with a yellow boxcutter.
“Give me the money or I’ll kill your wife and children,” the second thief allegedly snarled.
When that didn’t work, the desperate blade-wielding accomplice cut his own arm, the sources said.
He allegedly warned, “I’ll tell them you hurt me and you will go to prison.”
By the time real cops showed up, the 6-foot, 250-pound police impersonator had vanished. But a bleeding Amro Abdelhalim, 36, was arrested for robbery and unlawful imprisonment. He required stitches.
A man claiming to be a federal agent snatched an iPhone from a sleeping straphanger in the Financial District, authorities said.
Kareem Daniels was wearing a Federal Bureau of Prisons jacket when he allegedly took the phone from the 29-year-old man on the 1 train between South Ferry and Rector Street at around 2:50 a.m. Friday.
A cop spotted Daniels, who allegedly claimed to be a federal agent.
Daniels was hit with a slew of charges, including grand larceny and impersonation.
Five men boosted more than $1,000 worth of clothes from a Soho boutique, sources said.
One of the crooks acted as a lookout while five others barged into Robins Jean on Grand Street at around noon, May 13.
One of those men shoved a pair of yellow shorts down his pants, while another grabbed three pairs of shorts and passed them to an accomplice, who threw them over the shoplifting sensor at the entrance.
Yet another man caught the clothes, then bolted with his cohorts.
An aspiring musician hit his girlfriend over the head with his guitar after a drunken argument in Midtown, cops said.
Lakeise Wilson, 29, had just left a gathering with his 20-year-old girlfriend and mutual friends at 9:30 p.m. May 6, when they began arguing, police said.
Wilson became irate about something his girlfriend said and began pushing her in front of passers-by before whacking her with his guitar, according to cop.
The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital for a black eye, and Wilson was charged with assault.
He has prior arrests for pot possession and jumping a turnstile.
The Bronx
A man was shot execution-style near an Edenwald elementary school, cops said.
The 45-year-old victim was shot in the head at around 9 a.m. Wednesday on West 229th Street near East 229th Drive. A 911 caller reported the shooting and EMS declared the victim dead at the scene.
Police did not release the victim’s name because his family had not yet been notified.
Staten Island
A man was busted for beating a cabby after refusing to pay his fare, authorities said.
Paul Castro, 21, hailed a taxi and took a $30 ride to Canal and Bay streets at around 10:20 a.m. May 12, then wouldn’t pay, a Criminal Court complaint states.
He was charged with petit larceny, according to a spokesman for the district attorney.