4 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 10, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Undercover cops bust alleged
Bayside basement brothel
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Th ree Queens residents were arrested
in Bayside aft er undercover offi cers were
allegedly off ered a massage and sexual
intercourse in exchange for cash.
On April 21 at around 6:40 p.m., two
undercover offi cers entered the basement
of a building on 45th Drive off Bell
Boulevard and spoke with Cheolryong
Shin, a 31-year-old Flushing resident,
according to criminal complaints provided
by the Queens District Attorney’s
offi ce on May 7.
Shin allegedly told the offi cers he was
the manager of the location and had two
female employees willing to perform sexual
intercourse and a full body massage
for $160.
Ting Ting Wen, 27, and Yan Yan Hong,
40, agreed to perform the acts within
basement massage rooms, according to
prosecutors. Offi cers then placed Shin,
Wen and Hong under arrest.
Shin, who lives in Flushing, was
charged with promotion of prostitution.
Wen, who lived at the site of the bust,
and Hong, a Flushing resident, were each
charged with prostitution and unauthorized
practice of profession.
According to public records, New
Angel Relaxing Inc. registered with the
New York State Department of State
(NYSDOS) at the location in November
2017.
Shin is due back in court on June 4.
Wen and Hong are each scheduled to
reappear on May 11.
Th is is an active investigation, an
NYPD spokesperson noted. Offi cers
from the 111th Precinct were involved
in the sting.
Cops hook,
line & sink
mail thieves
in Rego Park
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Th anks to a tipster’s help, police netted
on Friday morning two alleged
mailbox fi shers in Rego Park.
Offi cers from the 112th Precinct
responded to a 911 call about suspicious
activity at the corner of 63rd
Drive and Wetherole Street at about 1
a.m. on May 4.
Upon arriving at the location, police
said, they were met by an eyewitness
who claimed to have seen two men
using a contraption to steal envelopes
out of a U.S. Postal Service mailbox
at the corner of 63rd Drive and Booth
Street, a block away.
Aft er receiving a detailed description
of the suspects, law enforcement sources
noted, the offi cers began canvassing
the surrounding area. Moments
later, at the corner of 63rd Drive and
Alderton Street, they came across two
men who fi t the description walking
through the area.
Police said the offi cers stopped and
exited from their vehicle and went
to stop the men. One of the suspects
was detained at the scene as the other
attempted to fl ee on foot. An offi cer
caught up to him following a brief foot
pursuit, authorities said.
Cops identifi ed both suspects as
Brooklyn residents Ron Rosario, 25,
and Carlos Salazar, 23. In arresting
them, police recovered the makeshift
fi shing device, which turned out to be
a small, weighted plastic bottle covered
in adhesive with a shoelace attached
to it.
Rosario and Salazar were charged
with grand larceny, criminal trespassing
and possession of burglar’s tools,
sources said.
Queens row houses targeted for
‘inappropriate’ development, leaders say
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Th e city’s semi-attached and row homes
have been the focus of “inappropriate”
development in recent years, according
to northeast Queens leaders, jeopardizing
neighboring residents and the character
of the neighborhood.
On May 3, local civic leaders and state
Senator Avella held a press conference
to call attention to the trend — observed
in areas including Bayside, College Point
and Bellerose — where semi-attached
houses are being re-built by developers to
tower over the adjacent home.
Th e group called on the city to establish
new building and zoning codes that protect
semi-attached and row houses from
this “inappropriate construction.”
“Th ere’s nothing to stop this,” Avella
said, referencing a photo of new home
built up against a smaller residence in
Queens. A fi rewall was built to separate
the two structures.
Th is construction causes the property
value of the attached home to plummet,
Avella claimed, and opens adjacent
homeowners up to ventilation and quality
of-life concerns.
“Th e only thing the homeowner can
do is then sell to somebody else who’s
going to do something like this on the
other end,” Avella said. “We have to come
up with some sort of proposal where at
least the adjacent homeowner
has some rights.”
Avella said he will
write a letter to the city’s
Department of Buildings,
Department of City
Planning and Mayor Bill de
Blasio to come up with additional
regulations in the zoning
or building codes to prevent
this from happening in
the future.
“If you’re doing a row
house, it should be a row
house,” said Frank Toner,
vice president of the Rocky
Hill Civic Association. “It
should be just straight along
the line.”
Representatives from the
North East Flushing Civic
Association and the Bayside
Hills Civic Association were
also present to voice their
support.
“Developers are looking
for any loophole they can
fi nd to build up or to change the character
of the neighborhood. Th is is a perfect
example,” Avella said. “Now it seems to
be — as bad as it was — getting worse.”
“Generally speaking, things like height/
bulk restrictions at a particular location
are determined in the Zoning Resolution,”
a DOB spokesperson told QNS. “While
DOB is the agency responsible for enforcing
the ZR, we do not write it.”
“Th e Department of City Planning
strives to ensure zoning will appropriately
refl ect the varied character of the city’s
neighborhoods, and it will continue to
do so as the city evolves and issues may
arise,” a DCP spokesperson said.
Photo via Twitter/@NYPD112Pct
Members of the 112th Precinct holding an
improvised mailbox fi shing device seized
during a May 4 arrest.
Photo via Google Maps
Offi cers led a prostitution bust in the basement of the Bayside building on April 21
Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi/The Courier
Avella references local examples of the construction trend
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