Insult to injury
A 67-year-old woman was hit in the face by an assailant who hoped to steal the purse off her shoulder, just after 7 p.m. on Jan. 7, police reports say. The woman was just a few steps away from her Fifth Street home when a man approached her from behind and grabbed the arm strap of the pocketbook which was dangling from her shoulder, the woman told police later. She then says that she turned around and told him that she barely had any money. According to her statement, this appeared to anger him. He allegedly struck her in the face and said, “Give me your bag, mother——!”
As he said this, he hit her with his free hand, she reported, and tore the pocketbook away. He and another man ran down the street as the woman fell to the ground. When police arrived she still was clutching the shoulder strap which had separated from the bag during the altercation. The Hoboken Volunteer Ambulance Corps was summoned to treat her for minor injuries.
Here they come
Police officers Brian Brereton and James Marnell had pulled over a motorist at 2:36 a.m. on Jan. 7 when they saw “approximately 30 people running out of the parking garage on Second and Hudson,” police reports say. According to a report the officers filed after the incident, the pack of people “was fighting in small groups.” When the officers went to intervene they say that they had to pull several people apart and “due to all the fighting it was hard to figure out who was who.”
Soon afterwards more police officers showed up and everything seemed to quiet down, the officers reported. But two men continued to act provocatively, according to the report. Jaime Baldre, 23, and Shawn Brander, 23, were hauled down to police headquarters and charged with disturbing the peace. The rest of the group appears to have dissipated peacefully.
Is that a gun in your pocket …?
A 24-year-old man was putting his key into his front door at Third and Madison streets on Jan. 6 when a thief stuck an object in his back and asked for his money, police reports say. The thief apparently told his victim that the object in his back was a gun. Rather than argue or ask for a quick peek at the object in question, the victim took $80 out of one of his pockets and handed it over. Apparently the money was not in his wallet, because as this was happening, a third person reached into the victim’s back pocket and took his wallet too. The burglars then fled. Police are investigating.
Stolen at 6 p.m.
Someone appears to have snatched a purse from a woman who was taking packages from her car up to her First Street apartment on Jan. 5 at approximately 6 p.m., police reports say. The purse was left in the front seat of the car, which was locked, according to a statement the woman gave police. Investigators found no damage to car doors suggesting a forced entry. The bag was described as a black leather purse with a shoulder strap. It was designed by Coach.
A different sort of parking problem
A woman who works as a waitress at a downtown restaurant had her car stolen while she was at work on Jan. 7 sometime between 4 and 10 p.m., police reports indicate. The woman told investigators that she left it at 63 Third Street at about 4 p.m. but when she returned six hours later it was gone. Police are investigating.