Manhattan
A prominent attorney is in the doghouse after allegedly leaving his 30-pound pooch in his luxury Mercedes amid freezing temperatures as he dined at an Upper West Side sushi restaurant. Cops gave Fred Oberlander, 59, a desk-appearance ticket on a misdemeanor charge of willfully and intentionally endangering the life of his mixed-breed pet, Pebbles. On Wednesday night, Oberlander and his fiancée were dining at a West 72nd Street eatery when he received a call from police telling him that a citizen reported that his dog was dead in his Mercedes.
The couple ran to the car and found seven officers surrounding his vehicle with Pebbles inside, alive and well.
Oberlander will be arraigned on March 20 in Manhattan Criminal Court, and he reportedly plans to fight the charges.
A robber snatched an entire tray of engagement rings in a Diamond District theft, police said Friday. On Nov. 17 at approximately 3:25 p.m., the suspect (above) entered Aqua Master Jewelry and asked for a closer look at rings in a window display. While a staffer was opening the window case, the crook reached over the counter, grabbed a tray of rings and bolted, cops said. The store said it had not itemized the stolen bling, police sources said. The suspect was described as in his 30s, Â6-foot-1 and 180 pounds with short hair. A similar heist netted $53,000 in valuables at another West 47th Street jeweler a month later, but investigators do not believe the two brazen thefts are connected.
Brooklyn
Cops recovered an inoperable rocket launcher from a Bushwick home Friday morning in a raid that also yielded guns and drug paraphernalia, police sources said. Officers raided the Knickerbocker Avenue home on a tip from Bronx cops and found the spent rocket launcher among other weapons, including a handgun and brass knuckles, the sources said. Juan Garcia was charged with criminal use of drug paraphernalia and weapons possession. Sources said it was not immediately clear how Garcia, 41, got his hands on the inert, heavy-duty weapon.
A woman posing as a utility worker swiped $600 from an elderly man’s Brighton Beach apartment, authorities said. The thief knocked on the door of the 79-year-old victim’s apartment near Brighton Beach Avenue and Coney Island Avenue on Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. and asked him for utility-billing information. While the senior was looking for the paperwork in his bedroom, the fraudster entered the apartment, grabbed cash and fled, cops said. The suspect is believed to be in her 20s, Â5-foot-5 and 120 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a pink winter hat with a green pom-pom.
Queens
Two thieves stole cash from a synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills on Christmas Day, cops said. The suspects were seen on surveillance video burglarizing the Shuva Israel Temple on 70th Road near 147th Street in the wee hours of Dec. 25, according to police. Authorities said the duo slipped through an open door between 5 and 8:30 a.m. and ransacked the synagogue. They ripped a cupboard door off its hinges and grabbed $500 from a box, police sources said.
Staten Island
A North Carolina murder suspect who has vowed to shoot it out with cops may be hiding out on Staten Island, police sources said. Cortaz Quemel Lucas, 17, allegedly fatally shot his mother’s boyfriend in Clayton, NC, on Dec. 28. North Carolina police said Lucas and Robert Lee Horton, 28, got into an argument in their trailer park that ended with Lucas gunning down Horton. Lucas, a reputed Bloods gangbanger, was already wanted for violating probation related to earlier assault and kidnapping charges, according to news accounts from his hometown. Police sources said Lucas, who has reportedly said he’d go down shooting if cornered by cops, has ties to Staten Island. Lucas stands 5-foot-7 and weighs 140 pounds.