Volume 1, Number 33 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 4 - 10, 2007
Police Blotter
Locked out
A locksmith told police he received a phone call from an unidentified man who met him in front of an apartment at 232 W. 24th St. and told him, “I’m locked out.” While the locksmith was removing the cylinder, a woman in the apartment asked, “What are you doing out there?” The locksmith said the unidentified man “looked embarrassed,” gave him a $50 bill, left and was not seen again, according to police.
Red Rock rocky
The landlord of 114 10th Ave., where Red Rock Bar is located on the corner of W. 17th St., filed a complaint with the 10th Precinct on Mon. April 30 that the bar owner deliberately gave him eight bad checks totaling $63,000 for rent.
A woman patron of Red Rock told police that someone threw a glass or a bottle at her, cutting her lip and knocking out a tooth around 4 a.m. Sun. April 29. She was unable to say whether it was a man or a woman who threw the object.
Parking lot fracas
An argument at a parking garage at 359 W. 15th St. near Ninth Ave. involving five drivers—two men and three women—turned violent at 6 a.m. Sun. April 29 when one of the women hit someone who tried to intervene with a bat, police said. The suspect drove off in a gray Honda, witnesses said.
Saturday morning fever
While patrolling the West Chelsea club block of W. 28th St. between 10th and 11th Aves. at 2 a.m. Sat. April 28, police arrested two men, Matthew Goodman, 23, and Scott Tobay, 24, in the middle of a drug transaction. The suspects were charged with sale and possession of cocaine. At 7:42 a.m. Sat. April 28, police broke up a fight at the northeast corner of Seventh Ave. and W. 23rd St. and apprehended one brawler who had a bag of marijuana in his jacket pocket.
Shoplifters
Four men entered Universal Gear, a clothing boutique at 140 Eighth Ave. at 17th St. at about 4 p.m. Tues. May 1 and shoplifted a total of 13 Diesel jeans valued at $2,915, police said. The manager realized what the four had done when he saw them all together in front of the store. The manager went out to confront them, but they fled in different directions.
F.I.T. thefts
An employee at Fashion Institute of Technology, 227 W. 27th St., left her bag at her computer station for no more than three minutes at 5 p.m. Mon. April 30 and found it missing when she returned, police said.
At about 9 p.m. Tues. May 1, another F.I.T. employee had her wallet stolen by a pickpocket in the building at 227 W. 27th St.
Braunstein trial
The first witness on April 30 in the trial of Peter Braunstein, charged with arson, impersonating a firefighter, and sexually abusing and imprisoning a woman in her Chelsea apartment on Halloween 2005, was the victim, who told the jury of her harrowing ordeal.
A former writer at Women’s Wear Daily who knew Braunstein only by sight in the office, the victim, 35, whose name was not revealed, told of being chloroformed, tied to a bed naked, sexually abused and videotaped while her mouth and eyes were taped during an imprisonment that lasted for nearly 13 hours.
Braunstein is charged with gaining access to the W. 24th St. apartment of his victim by setting off smoke bombs in the hallway and convincing her to open her door because he was dressed as a firefighter.
A fugitive for six weeks, Braunstein was the subject of a multi-state police alert before he was captured in Memphis, where he slashed his own neck as police closed in. Braunstein has indicated he would seek acquittal by reason of insanity.
Credit card
A woman visiting from Mexico City told police someone stole her credit card after she used it at the bar in Son Cubano, a club at 405 W. 14th St., on Saturday night April 29. When she phoned to cancel the card, she learned that someone had made an unauthorized charge on it for food at Son Cubano on the same night, police said.
— Albert Amateau
