8 The QUEE NS Courier • SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 for breaking news visit www.quenscourier.com OLYMPIANS NANCY KERRIGAN AND KAYLA HARRISON VISIT LIC FLEA TO FILM SHOW BY ANGELA MATUA amatua@queenscourier.com/@AngelaMatua Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan and Olympic Judo gold-medalist Kayla Harrison came to the LIC Flea & Food in Long Island City on Sept. 20 to compete in a new kind of sport — flea market flipping. Hosted by Lara Spencer, co-anchor of “Good Morning America,” HGTV’s “Flea Market Flip” follows two teams as they hunt for treasures at flea markets around the country and then flip and sell them for a profit. Each team receives $500, and the team who sells their items for the most wins. Nancy Kerrigan chose to play with her son, Matthew Solomon, while Kayla Harrison competed with her grandmother, Rachel. According to Kerrigan, her husband and manager Jerry Solomon approached Spencer at the U.S. Open and pitched the idea of a celebrity edition of the show. He invited Harrison, who in 2012 became the first American to win an Olympic medal in Judo, to compete against his wife. Kerrigan and her son, Matthew, 18, said they enjoyed rebuilding their flea market finds and learned a lot from the master craftsmen who help the contestants transform each piece. “My favorite part is definitely the remaking of things. It’s a new experience,” Nancy Kerrigan said. “I mean we’ve experienced buying things but not so much selling and rebuilding.” For one of their projects, Kerrigan and Solomon turned an 11-foot bench window seat into a console table. The duo cut the table in half and added Olympians Nancy Kerrigan (pictured with her son, Matthew) and Kayla Harrison attended the LIC Flea to compete in Flea Market Flip. legs for some height. They also refurbished a piece of a vanity to create two nightstands. Two ladders were turned into shelves, with hooks to fasten them against a wall. “We got to really use our skills and decide what we were going to transform the pieces into,” Solomon said. Harrison invited her grandmother, “who has been going to flea markets since before I was born,” to join the competition. The pair bought all of their pieces for $20 each and worked creatively to completely THE COURIER/Photo by Angela Matua transform them into something new. An old trunk was fashioned into a bar and desk combo, a window and storage base became a coffee table and two chairs were reupholstered and painted military blue and champagne gold. Harrison said she enjoyed “seeing her grandmother in her element, doing what she loves” and working with the talented crew. New episodes of “Flea Market Flip” air Sundays at 8 p.m. on HGTV. Assemblyman Ron Kim takes down purse-snatcher BY ALINA SURIEL asuriel@queenscourier.com @alinangelica Assemblyman Ron Kim was involved in a heroic scene on Sept. 17 after he chased down a panhandling purse-snatcher in Flushing and tackled him down to the floor until the arrival of police. Kim was walking to his office at around 12:40 p.m. with an assistant when he saw the allegedly homeless suspect running down Main Street following an attempt to steal a 29-year-old woman’s purse from a stroller containing her infant child. “At that moment it struck a chord because it could have been my family or mother or my infant walking around Main Street, just like they do every day,” Kim told The Courier, “and I just wanted to make sure I offered my services.” A man described by Kim as a “good Samaritan” was chasing the man at the time, followed by the frantic woman and an elderly female family member pushing the victim’s child behind in the stroller According to Kim, when he spoke to the woman he was able to find out that the man had first asked her for money, and when she refused he was thwarted in the robbery attempt by the good Samaritan. A nearby crowd had tried to subdue the man after the incident but the suspect—who was later identified by police as 25-year-old Daniel Fish — was able to escape in time for the lawmaker to see him disappear into the busy street. Kim was in the process of calling authorities on his cellphone when an employee from a nearby bakery pointed out a commercial building she had seen the suspect enter near 38th Avenue and Main Street. He was still on the phone when the suspect emerged from the building, and although he was in different clothing than he had been seen wearing earlier, the “good Samaritan” and others at the scene identified the man as the woman’s attacker. It was then that Kim—a former varsity football player and wrestler—subdued the man in what he described as a double leg takedown. “My gut instinct was that I have to take him down because if I give him a chance to do something stupid, people might be hurt, or I might be hurt,” he said. Police from the nearby 109th Precinct arrived on the scene shortly after to take the man into custody. He was charged with grand larceny. The legislator said that this incident brought to light the larger issue of homelessness in Flushing, and more should be done to find a long-term solution for individuals living on the streets. He said he will follow up with authorities to learn more about the man’s history, and has contacted the mayor’s office for help from City Hall in fighting homelessness in the area. Photo courtesy of the office of Assemblyman Ron Kim Assemblyman Ron Kim and a good Samaritan hold a would-be purse-snatcher until police arrive.
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