October 20, 2007 / News / Police Blotter / Brooklyn Heights–Downtown

Just saying ‘no’ may have led to this big-time theft

By Harry Cheadle

for The Brooklyn Paper

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A woman who followed Nancy Reagan’s famous advice to “just say no” to drugs ended up being robbed of $4,400 in jewelry early on Oct. 12.

The 27-year-old victim was walking home at 1 am when two men approached her at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, and one asked, “Do you want to buy a joint?”

The woman said no and added, “I’m good,” and continued to walk, but the pair followed her and one of the men put what felt like a gun against her back.

The victim froze, and the crooks took $3,500 in diamond rings, along with a $600 watch and a $300 pair of earrings.

Fulton filch

It’s safe to say she didn’t win employee of the month.

A worker at a popular Fulton Mall department store was discovered giving away merchandise on Oct. 13, and admitted to stealing an additional $1,500 from customers’ credit cards, cops said.

The 23-year-old cashier was ringing up a customer around 4 pm when her suspicious behavior — she was removing security tags from the clothing and putting $825 worth of stuff into bags without taking any money from the customer — was observed by a fellow employee.

Out the window

A sneaky burglar broke into a DUMBO man’s Plymouth Street apartment through an unlocked window and made off with a fancy flat-screen TV on Oct. 10.

The man left his second-story apartment, near Pearl Street, around 7:30 am and came back at 4:30 pm. If he was looking forward to unwinding in front of his high-definition television, he was quickly disappointed.

Hamburgled

A fast-food establishment famed for inviting customers to “have it your way” didn’t have its way on Oct. 9, as three men held up the Fulton Street franchise at gunpoint.

The three men — two of whom were in jogging jackets — entered the restaurant, near Pearl Street, around 10 pm. “Be calm and cool,” one perp said, according to police. “Now give me all your money and put your hands in your pocket and just stand there.”

The employee complied, and the thieves escaped with $2,100 out of the register.

McWhipped

A perp who, oddly enough, used a whip as his weapon, stole a cellphone from a 14-year-old in the bathroom of a billion-selling burger chain on Oct. 9.

The boy had stopped at the fast food joint, on the corner of Tillary and Gold streets, around 3 pm. He went to the bathroom and was followed by a largish man who grabbed the victim from behind and threatened, “Just hand over your stuff. I got a whip. I don’t want to take it out.”

The boy noticed that a second man was blocking the door, so he gave away $10 and his Sidekick cellphone.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper