79TH PRECINCT
BEDFORD STUYVESANT
Lotto looters
Two gun-wielding pilferers
looted a Lexington Avenue grocery
store on Dec. 13.
An employee told police that the
perps brandished a black fi rearm
while demanding cash from the register
of the store near Franklin Avenue,
before the second baddie grabbed
New York State Lottery scratch off
tickets, a cellphone, and credit cards
belonging to the 39-year-old male victim,
before running off.
88TH PRECINCT
FORT GREENE—CLINTON HILL
Sneak thief
A group of schoolyard scalawags
tried to take the shoes off a classmate’s
feet outside a Clermont Avenue
school on Dec. 1.
Police said the victim walked
out of the School for Career Development
near Atlantic Avenue just
before 2pm and was surrounded by
six of his fellow students, who then
tried to pull the shoes from his feet.
They couldn’t get the shoes off, but
when the victim stood up after being
knocked to the ground, one of
the would-be bandits closed their
hand around his throat.
Corner store con
A brigand robbed a Myrtle Avenue
bodega on Dec. 7.
The victim was working inside
the New Saba Deli and Grocery
near Clermont Avenue at about 7pm
when a man entered the store and
told him to “put the money in the
bag” after fl ashing his gun, police
said. He made off with a total of $700
in cash from the register.
Getting canned
An argument at a Tillary Street
homeless shelter became physical
on Dec. 8.
Two residents were having a
verbal dispute in the shelter near
Prince Street at about 7am when one
of the women allegedly hit the other
with an aerosol spray can, slicing
open her forehead. An on-site offi -
cer arrested the assailant.
The victim was taken to Cobble
Hill Hospital by ambulance.
Not very neighborly
Neighborly greetings took a turn
for the worst when a man attacked
an acquaintance in their Navy Walk
apartment building on Dec. 9.
The victim was standing in the
lobby of his building near Tillary
Street at about 9pm when the baddie
walked in and cut his face with a folding
knife, police said, then ran out of
the building.
COURIER LIFE, D 8 ECEMBER 17-23, 2021
Get in the zone
A prowler broke into an Atlantic
Avenue car shop and emptied the
cash register on Dec. 7.
Police said the AutoZone between
Gates and Classon avenues
was closed and locked up just before
11pm, but when employees returned
early the next morning they found
that someone had come in overnight
and stolen $400 in cash.
Morning break in
A pair of home invaders broke
the glass door of a Clinton Avenue
apartment and made themselves at
home on Dec. 9.
The victims awoke that morning
to fi nd the door of their small apartment
building near Greene Avenue
worth about $600, shattered, but
couldn’t fi gure out what, if anything,
had been stolen. Camera footage
showed two men busting open
the door at about 3am.
Jackpot!
A jerk broke into a Myrtle Avenue
apartment and stole a variety of
luxury items on Dec. 10.
Police said the victim left her
home near Hall Street at about
6:30pm, and when she returned a few
hours later, found that someone had
broken into the apartment and rummaged
through her bedroom, picking
up two designer wallets, a selection
of jewelry, and some credit cards.
Two of the stolen cards were used at a
nearby Target that same night.
— Kirstyn Brendlen
62ND PRECINCT
BENSONHURST—BATH BEACH
Vitaminworld
Highwaymen broke into a van
parked on W. 8th Street fi lled with
electronics and vitamins on Dec. 6.
Police said the bandits smashed
the passenger-side window of the
vehicle at the intersection of Highlawn
Avenue around 4:44 pm before
stealing the car’s contents.
The Grinch
A homewrecker stole $10,000
from a Cropsey Avenue home on
Dec. 10.
The victims told police the robber
broke into the home between Bay
25th and Bay 26th streets through
a second-story window around 7 pm
while the homeowners were away.
Chased bank
A duo of muggers stole $300 and
a debit card from a woman walking
home on 23rd Avenue from a Chase
Bank branch on Dec. 7
A witness chased the savages after
they fl ed from the scene between Benson
Avenue and 86th Street at 1 pm
but was threatened with a fi rearm.
—Jessica Parks
Man cuffed for Molotov
cocktail at Bed-Stuy deli
Security footage captured the moment a Molotov cocktail set a Bed-Stuy bodega
ablaze on Oct. 30. FDNY
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday
indicted a man on charges of
throwing a Molotov cocktail into
a Bedford-Stuyvesant bodega, setting
the place ablaze and causing
massive amounts of damage to the
premises.
Flatbush resident Joel Mangal,
38, is being held on $500,000 bail for
the Oct. 30 incident, which prosecutors
allege was an attempted murder
of two employees at the deli on
Nostrand Avenue at Halsey Street.
He is being charged with attempted
murder, arson, assault, and aggravated
harassment.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez alleges that at 6:40 am on
Oct. 30, Mangal threatened to kill
the bodega’s employees and burn
down the store, and then threw an
apple at one of them, breaking a television.
An hour later, he allegedly
lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it
into the bodega.
Surveillance video released by
the FDNY showed the explosive appear
to be thrown directly at the
deli counter, where two employees
were working the morning shift.
The Molotov explodes on impact
and creates an enormous inferno
engulfi ng the counter. Both men at
the store managed to escape, but
one had to run directly through the
fl ames and his cought fi re.
Mangal allegedly tried to throw
a second Molotov into the store but
was stopped by a passerby, who
knocked the device to the ground
resulting in a sidewalk inferno, per
surveillance video. At that point,
Mangal escaped on foot heading
towards the Nostrand Avenue A/C
subway stop.
The deli employees chased Mangal
into the station, where one of
them was allegedly stabbed in the
hand by the assailant, before they
notifi ed a cop.
“Thankfully, this frightening
attack did not lead to more serious
injuries, but this kind of lawlessness
is dangerous and requires an
appropriate law enforcement response,”
Gonzalez said in a statement.
“We will now seek to bring
this defendant to justice and hold
him accountable.”