The 90th Precinct was slammed with a spate of 18 robberies last week — with many of the attacks featuring large gangs of young kids preying on people returning home around midnight in the East Williamsburg and Bushwick part of the sprawling precinct.
The spike comes one week after The Brooklyn Paper highlighted the precinct’s large drop in burglaries so far this year.
Here’s a roundup:
• On Aug. 12, two perps approached a 19-year-old man as he walked on McKibbin Street near White Street at around 10:30 pm. One of the men rifled his pockets, removing a cellphone, debit card and an unspecified amount of cash, cops said.
• About a half-hour later, seven men surrounded a 31-year-old woman near the corner of Cook Street and Manhattan Avenue. One of the men hit the woman in the face, but was unable to get what he really wanted: her cellphone. The woman fled without further injury.
• On Aug. 13, three men surrounded a 56-year-old man as he was walking home from the Broadway station of the G train at around 1:50 am. The man had gotten to the corner of Boerum and Leonard streets, when one of the men flashed a handgun and the others took the man’s cash.
The victim spoke only Chinese and did not give the police a good description of the thugs.
• A man was battered by three men as he walked home along South Fourth Street at 2 am on Aug. 12. The man told cops that the trio of thugs surrounded him and beat him repeatedly about the face, nose and head, knocking him to the ground, near the corner of Keap Street. The thugs got cash, and the 31-year-old man managed to get to his home.
• An employee of a Varet Street store was punched in the face by one member of a villainous quartet on Aug. 14.
The fearsome foursome entered the store, which is between Manhattan and Graham avenues, and the ringleader went behind the counter to punch the shopkeeper. Meanwhile, his three co-conspirators stole T-shirts from the racks. All four men then fled.
But three days later, when another group tried to do the same thing — including punching the shopkeeper — one of them, a 35-year-old, was arrested.
• A woman was robbed of her cellphone by a man who pretended to need a favor on Aug. 15.
The woman had been walking with her boyfriend near the corner of Broadway and Thornton Street at around 10 pm when a man yelled, “Come over. I need your help.” When the pair refused, the demand became more belligerent: “Give me the phone. I don’t want to shoot you over a phone.”
She turned it over, and the perps fled.
• A man walking home from the L-train station at Bushwick Avenue and Grand Street was followed into a supermarket and then to his home by two perps who waited until he was inside his building before robbing him on Aug. 16.
The man entered the Powers Street home at 11:40 pm and an assailant put him in a chokehold while another man stole his cellphone and cash.
Bicycle thief
Is there no decency among thieves, at long last?
A 10-year-old girl had her bicycle stolen from her as she rode near the corner of Division Avenue and Roebling Street on Aug. 18. Cops are hunting for a 13-year-old boy on a girls’ bike.
Cars gone
At least five cars were stolen last week, including:
• A man who loaned his car to a friend returned from vacation on Aug. 14 to find that the car had been stolen. He told cops that the friend had parked the car on Hewes Street between Bedford Avenue and the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway.
• A Dodge Caravan was stolen from a spot on South Ninth Street on Aug. 17. The 35-year-old victim told cops that he’d parked the car between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue just after midnight and it was gone when he went back later that day.
• A man who parked his Buick on South First Street at around 1 am on Aug. 17 returned the next day to find it gone. The car had been left between Wythe and Kent avenues.
• A man who parked his 1994 Honda Civic on Olive Street near the corner of Powers Street on Aug. 8 told cops that it wasn’t there when he returned to it on Aug. 19.
Hero officer
An officer collared three men — one of whom was holding a silver handgun — who were trying to rob a woman on McKibbin Street on Aug. 14.
The trio had surrounded the woman near Bushwick Avenue at around 11:30 pm and demanded property. But officer Erik Malak showed up and arrested the men, whose ages ranged from 18–22.
Billyburgs
There were at least five burglaries last week, including:
• A Graham Avenue home was broken into through a window on Aug. 12. It is unclear what the thief took from the unit, which is near Meserole Street.
• A man’s Hewes Street apartment was broken into on Aug. 19 at 1:30 am and the thief got away with jewelry. He said he had an alarm but forgot to set it.
