Since its inception in the 1830s, the Sun has chronicled crime in the mean streets of the City that Never Sleeps, and to this day, the police blotter – or its digital equivalent – offers fascinating snapshots into lives gone wrong in the myriad neighborhoods of the five boroughs. Our aim here is to chronicle the more curious criminal incidents across New York City that, with local news coverage in retreat, may not otherwise come under a spotlight. 

Please remember when perusing this blotter that arrests do not constitute guilt, and all suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, the reported items are merely a snapshot of a criminal matter – what is known at the time of publishing. In most cases, the persons arrested for breaking the law haven’t been convicted (yet). It’s also possible that the charges brought against them may be reduced or even withdrawn.

MANHATTAN

Midtown: Man Caught Packing Lethal Force in His Underwear

A straphanger was caught strapped.

At about 7:30 p.m. on March 30, transit cops stopped a 22-year-old man in the Times Square subway station. The cops searched the man and plucked from his boxers a .25 caliber Bauer pistol loaded with one round. The piece also had been adulterated, with its serial number scratched off, the complaint reads. The gun bust below ground is one of over a dozen this year targeting subway riffraff. As of late March, the uptick in arrests is a 33 percent bump from two years ago and a 200 percent increase from the same time period six years ago. 

Governor Hochul implemented a show of force policy to beef up manpower on city trains (two cops detailed to every train overnight). That effort is reaping rewards, with the city brass touting a dip in rail crime. For gun arrests, based on the most recent CompStat data, there have been 24 gun-related incidents on trains — eight less (or a 25 percent decrease) than the same time last year. 

Currently, 2025 has marked the “second lowest” number of such arrests in nearly three decades. Subway crime decreased to the second-lowest level in 27 years, with major crime dropping 18.1 percent during the first quarter, and zero murders in the transit system for the first time in seven years. During the first quarter, there was a surge in NYPD patrols of subway platforms and trains to combat crime and violence.

Midtown: Pint-Sized Chainsnatchers’ Failed Escape Plan

A teenage twosome was nabbed for snatching chains from three unsuspecting victims  in the vicinity of Times Square. The two ran their Artful Dodger campaign between 9 p.m. and the small hours of March 25, law enforcement sources said. 

The pint-sized terrors, boys ages 14 and 15, snuck up on three people, yanked their chains, and sprinted away. Cops managed to track them down lurking about for their next mark on West 46th Street and Seventh Avenue. 

Each was taken into custody and hit with three counts of grand larceny as juveniles. They were released to their guardians pending a date at Manhattan Family Court.

BROOKLYN

East New York: Happy Hour Cut Short for Brooklyn Boozers

Two suspected lushes were busted having their own private happy hour while tippling top-shelf tequila and other libations while seated in a rental car. 

At about 3:45 p.m. on April 6, the revelers were spotted getting ripped inside the running rental parked at a fire hydrant.

A cop approached the ride and spotted various drinks — namely a handle of Don Julio tequila — opened and being consumed. The whiff in the car of the allegedly hammered duo was pungent and reeked of liquor, the complaint suggests. 

When the officer ran the plate, it was determined that the car was three days overdue to Budget Car Rental. The driver and his 23-year-old drinking buddy were hit with various charges including consumption of alcohol in a car, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and driving without a license.

Bedford Stuyvesant: Barber Caught Hoarding Crack, Guns, and Ammo 

It was wake-up time for a barber who allegedly hustled crack on the side of his home hairdo biz. 

The stylist was rousted awake by cops back at about 6 a.m. on April 10. They searched the suspected dealer’s Herkimer Street domicile that was allegedly doubling as a barbershop and dope hub. The detail seized a plastic baggie filled with crack rocks from a vessel stashed on a top shelf in the suspect’s bedroom. 

The officers zeroed in on a safe that contained a baggie of powder cocaine. In the suspect’s barber room, where he trimmed manes and tresses, they found another bag of powdered cocaine, according to the criminal complaint. 

The cops plucked out 89 glassine envelopes with equal parts heroin that were tucked into a microwave that likely wasn’t being relied upon for nuking pizza rolls. The collection of contraband also included the seizure of a Turkish-manufactured Tisas Zigana Px-9 9mm pistol in an ammunition can that happened to decorate the barber room. 

Cops collected several assorted gun magazines and an inventory of various caliber ammunition, including purple-tipped (polymer coated) rounds. Authorities accuse the suspect of lacking a license to possess a rifle or pistol and say he isn’t a dealer. 

New Lots: Woman Knifes Rival Five Times in Bloody Feud 

Two beefing women ended with one going to the mattresses. 

The elder allegedly pulled a blade and repeatedly stabbed her younger rival. The 33-year-old woman was busted in the broad daylight savagery where she had been quarreling with a 26-year-old woman on New Lots Avenue near Georgia Avenue at about 3:30 p.m. on April 10, according to the criminal complaint. 

At some point the fighting words elevated to physical violence.  The suspect allegedly clenched a knife and stabbed the other woman five times — in her neck, armpit, chest, and hand. 

It’s unclear what prompted the near-deadly duel. 

Cops collared the stabber at the scene — while her bloodied victim was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for her nonfatal wounds. 

Canarsie: Duo Netted Months Later for Homophobic-Fueled Subway Beatdown 

A straphanger was sucker-punched in the back by two punks who allegedly spit out a series of hate phrases. 

The 23-year-old woman and 25-year-old man (both sharing the same surname) allegedly trailed a person on an L train who they suspected of being gay at about 3 p.m. on January 25. As the train entered the Wilson Street station, and the victim exited the train and walked onto the platform, the two alleged brutes landed a devastating blow to the back of the person’s head. 

“Dirty f—-ing f—t,” they blabbed, according to the criminal complaint. They then allegedly added: “You probably have AIDS.” As the punched victim lay dazed on the ground of the train platform, his attackers then allegedly seethed, “It is over for your kind now!”

Months passed before investigators tracked down the anti-gay sluggers on April 2. 

They face assault (as a hate crime), menacing (as a hate crime), and aggravated harassment (based on race or religion).

QUEENS

Astoria: ‘I Was Trying To Park’: Driver’s Claim To Cops After Smashing Into Two Sisters, and a Man

An unlicensed driver claimed she was trying to park when she clipped two children and a man standing on the sidewalk in front of an elementary school. 

The 35-year-old was picked up on April 4 — one day after she allegedly motored her 2014 Nissan Versa along 35th Avenue near 37th Street in front of Our World Neighborhood Charter School just as an after-school program was dismissing pupils. 

Cops say the freak crash was captured on nearby surveillance cameras and showed the woman trying poorly to parallel park into a spot. 

She allegedly punched the gas too hard and not only struck a box truck but hopped the curb, hitting two sisters, ages 7 and 14 (driving “over the body” of the youngest and both cracking and knocking teeth out of elder), and sent a 58-year-old man timbering to the ground, according to the criminal complaint. 

The flummoxed woman told a responding cop that the incident that left the kids seriously wounded and the man roughed up in the head was all based on a bad parking job. “I was driving and trying to park,” she allegedly explained. 

The 7-year-old was stricken with a broken femur and a head wound while her older sister suffered a leg fracture, a hip abrasion, and extensive bruising about her entire body. The man who was decked like a pylon when the woman drove into him suffered a blackout and “substantial pain to his back and legs,” the papers say.

Asked by police to produce a valid license after the human collision, the woman motorist came up empty. Cops then ran her name into a database and discovered her driving privileges had been revoked since November 22 of last year. 

She was summarily charged with multiple assault charges, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and driving without a license. Court records show she appeared before a judge on May 15 to plead not guilty and is expected back in court on June 18. 

BRONX

Eastchester: Armed Landlord Turns Dognapper in Suspected Shakedown To Collect Tenant’s Debt

A money-hungry bully snatched a woman’s French bulldog from her home as collateral for being in arrears on a debt. 

At about noon on April 6, the 34-year-old unhinged landlord allegedly toted a pistol when he hammered a woman’s door inside of a Boston Secor Houses apartment situated on Reeds Mill Lane Near Boston Road. 

The tough allegedly demanded the woman pay up an outstanding debt. 

When she rebuffed him, he took her pooch into his mitts. Her protests were unable to phase him and he allegedly growled, “Back the f— up,” according to the criminal complaint. The animal larcenist was no stranger to police, law enforcement sources said, and so he was swiftly brought into custody. 

The pooch returned to the distressed woman’s loving embrace. The suspect was hit with charges of menacing, harassment, petit larceny, and criminal possession of stolen property (that being the fleeced Frenchie). 

Wakefield: Father Busted After Boy Shoots Self in Hand With Dead Aunt’s Gun

Minutes before 7 a.m. on May 18, a 7-year-old boy lost blood and shattered finger bones in his hand after accidentally squeezing off a shot from his dead aunt’s pistol, according to the criminal complaint.

The boy’s 61-year-old father allegedly told a responding police detail that the boy told him he found the black .25-caliber pistol stowed behind the late woman’s dresser. 

Authorities say the boy’s father took possession of the weapon and placed it in the front foyer of their home on East 230th Street near Bronxwood Avenue. Investigators seized the weapon and ran the man’s name through a database, determining he lacked a valid permit for the piece. Also, being that he was convicted in the 1980s of none other than weapons charges — he was forbidden from possessing firearms. 

The child was rushed to Jacobi Hospital, where his hand wound was treated. The accused, according to the papers, tried to explain to cops that while he claimed to be clueless about the pistol, he “knew his deceased sister to have had firearms in the past when she was alive.”

South Bronx: Aide Spits on and Then Pounds Mentally Ill Man Bloody With Pillow

A cruel aide was busted months after allegedly unleashing a vicious attack on a vulnerable man in his bedroom. 

The 39-year-old suspect was free for months until authorities brought an assault rap against him. At about 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, the victim was discovered by a witness getting walloped in his bedroom inside of a facility across the street from Lincoln Hospital on East 149th Street. 

The alleged instigator, who holds the title of being a Direct Support Professional, is accused of first spitting on the victim as he was lying in his bed. He then allegedly grabbed a pillow and whacked the mentally challenged man “multiple times” in his face, drawing blood and causing him to burst out in “crying” fits, according to the criminal complaint. 

The accused ruffian was busted on April 27 and slapped with charges of assault, two counts of endangering an incompetent person, along with harassment and weapons possession. (The endangering law specifically addresses situations “where someone knowingly acts in a manner likely to injure the physical, mental, or moral welfare of an individual who is unable to care for themselves due to a lack of physical disability, mental disease, or defect.”)

STATEN ISLAND

Oakwood Heights: Alleged Ecstasy and Heroin Dealer Caught Foraging Product in Oats Box, Packing Pretend Pistol 

An accused ecstasy dealer caught a case after being woken up at 4:35 a.m. to a task force armed with a warrant. 

The 57-year-old who also goes by an alias — along with a woman — were marched out of a bedroom inside of an apartment on Tysens Lane. When the cops’ handcuffs were broached, the suspect allegedly flailed his arms and tried to “prevent” officers from arresting him, the criminal complaint details. 

But once he was out of the home, the officers combed around the home and found a wide range of poison, including in the dining room. Amongst the scattered mail (including a utility bill addressed to the accused) law enforcement singled out a white bottle tucked on a dining room shelf. It wasn’t salt. Instead, it was a bunch of blue MDMA tablets. 

In the kitchen, investigators found a seemingly innocent box of Bowl & Basket Oats. 

But a closer look uncovered 210 glassine bags, each filled with brown heroin. 

The authorities made their way to the bedroom and discovered two “imitation firearms” that they described as dead ringers to the real McCoy. Both are reportedly black in color and lack any safety bright-colored tips to designate them as nonlethal weapons. 

The suspect was brought up on several drug possession charges, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, and possession of imitation pistols. 

The suspect is an ex-convict who was paroled from prison in December 2021, after serving a 25-year sentence for attempted murder, weapons possession, and attempted sale of a controlled substance in Brooklyn. 

He remains on active parole supervision through June 2031. The arrest is a violation of his parole, law enforcement sources said.