12 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 23, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com police beat Compiled by Cristabelle Tumola and Angy Altamirano Wet Basement? Call artie Basement Water Proofing Specialist Serving Queens for 35 Years For more information contact Artie DiBiase Mason Contractor 718.767.0072 Licensed #08097 and Insured North Shore Animal League America Has HUNDREDS of puppies, kittens, dogs and cats to choose from! Mixed-breeds, purebreds, small breeds too! WITH THIS AD SAVE 10% IN OUR PET SUPPLY STORE! Q C 25 Davis Avenue • Port Washington, NY 516.883.7575 • animalleague.org FOLLOW US: OPEN DAILY FOR ADOPTIONS SUN - THURS 10 AM - 9 PM FRI - SAT 10 AM - 10 PM PET SUPPLY STORE 15 Lewyt Street, Port Washington NY (across from our Adoption Center) FULL LINE OF PREMIUM PET FOOD, SUPPLIES & TRAINING CAGES. COMPETITIVE PRICES! Lower than many of the large, discount chain stores. All proceeds benefit our animal welfare programs and help us save more lives. 109th Precinct Flushing, Queensboro Hill, College Point, Malba, Whitestone, Beechhurst and Bay Terrace FOUR SOUGHT IN FLUSHING MASSAGE PARLOR ASSAULT, ATTEMPTED ROBBERY A group of men walked into a Flushing massage parlor last month and punched a man repeatedly in a failed robbery, cops said. The incident happened at 135-28 40th Rd., near Main Street just after 11 p.m. on March 29. After entering the massage parlor and heading to the second fl oor, the four suspects came up to the 48-yearold victim and tried to take his iPhone 6 from his front jacket pocket, police said. They then punched the victim several times, causing a laceration to the left side of his face. The suspects fl ed on foot in an unknown direction without the victim’s property, cops said. The victim was taken to Flushing Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477). 110th Precinct Corona and Elmhurst $2K REWARD FOR MAN WHO CHOKED, CUT GIRLFRIEND: NYPD Police are looking for a man who goes by four different names for recently choking his girlfriend and slicing her with scissors. On March 9 at about 3 a.m. Mario Rubiano-Gonzalez — who also uses the names William Para, Orlando Morales and John Zea — choked his girlfriend inside a home on Pettit Avenue in Elmhurst, according to cops. He also sliced the woman across her forearm with scissors, causing serious physical injury. According to the 110th Precinct, neither the suspect nor victim has prior domestic violence history, but Rubiano-Gonzalez does have a nonviolent prior arrest. The suspect, who is being sought for assault, is described as a white Hispanic man, 5 feet 5 inches tall, with black hair, brown eyes, and weighing 173 pounds. There is a $2,000 reward being offered for any information that leads to the arrest of Rubiano-Gonzalez. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477). 114th Precinct Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside and Jackson Heights PHONY SPRINT WORKER SWIPES COPPER WIRE FROM ASTORIA CELLPHONE TOWER: NYPD Police are looking for a copper wire thief who they say impersonated a Sprint employee to steal the valuable metal from an Astoria rooftop. The theft happened on top of a residential building on 42nd Street near 31st Avenue about 10:30 a.m. on March 13. After gaining access to the building’s roof by saying he was a Sprint employee, authorities said, the suspect took cooper grounding wires from one of the company’s cellphone towers. He then fl ed southbound on 42nd Street while carrying a bundle of the wire. Police have released video footage of the perpetrator and described him as Hispanic, 40 years old, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, and 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, black boots, a gray sweatshirt and black vest. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477). Photos courtesy of NYPD Photo courtesy of the NYPD Mario Rubiano-Gonzalez Jackson Heights travel agency owner faces 15 years for customer fraud A Jackson Heights travel agency owner is accused of stealing relaxing getaways and loads of cash from customers, some of whom she left stranded at the airport with canceled tickets, prosecutors said. Adriana Olivar-Munoz, 46, a Woodside resident, and owner and operator of Expertravel Travel Agency on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights was arraigned on April 21 on a 20-count indictment charging her with grand larceny, identity theft, falsifying business records, scheme to defraud and petit larceny, according to the district attorney’s offi ce. Olivar-Munoz allegedly defrauded at least 10 victims — including two wholesale travel agencies, Costmar Travel Agency and Skylink — out of more than $80,000 between Dec. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2014. Reportedly, she used her customers’ credit cards without their permission to purchase tickets for other customers or to buy them tickets, but cancelled them later, District Attorney Richard Brown said. Olivar- Munoz would allegedly give them an itinerary confi rmation, but the customers would only later learn — sometimes as they traveled home — that their tickets had been canceled due to non-payment. According to the district attorney, one of her fraud victims — a family who was trying to fl y from La- Guardia to Miami on New Year’s Eve 2014 — did not have the money to purchase more tickets when they found out the ones in their confi rmation had never been bought. Olivar-Munoz was arrested in September 2014 after two customers, for whom she had arranged the purchase of airline tickets to Colombia a few months earlier, noticed unauthorized charges on their credit card billing statements for airline tickets totaling about $1,300. Following the September 2014 arrest, the district attorney’s offi ce received more complaints from customers about the agency’s fraud. “The defendant is accused of turning people’s dream vacations into living nightmares. In some cases, victims allegedly fl ew to their destinations only to fi nd that the defendant never purchased a return fl ight for them. The defendant’s alleged crimes are particularly egregious in that many of the victims were Spanish-speaking individuals who trusted the defendant because she was from Colombia and spoke Spanish,” Brown said. Olivar-Munoz, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was held on $5,000 bail. She is due back in court on April 23. Anyone may have been a victim or knows someone who may have been a victim of the travel agency’s fraud is asked to contact the Queens District Attorney’s Economic Crimes Bureau at 718-286-6673. Screenshot via NYPD
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