B&H. (Google)

They were tempted by an Apple.

A sticky-fingered parking attendant, his band of five fake shoppers and a rogue cashier have been arrested for stealing customers' credit cards to purchase thousands of dollars of Apple products at B&H. The group of 20-somethings managed to rip $36,000 off customers at the Eastway Tenant Parking Garage, located on West 49th Street, over the course of two months last year, according to the district attorney.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. released a statement yesterday announcing the indictment of seven people. Chinoy Shaw, the oldest at 27, worked at the parking garage and is accused of using a small electronic device called a "skimmer" to record the credit card information of the customers. He has been charged with stealing over 50 account numbers and personal identities.

Five shoppers, Stephanie Bundrik, 21, Axell Dume, 21, Edgar Estevez, 24, Jonathan Guerrero, 19, and Yomailys Nachapelle, then used the replicated credit cards and forged identifications to buy a host of products at B&H Photo and Video Store on Ninth Avenue, prosecutors say.

Waiting for the "shoppers" behind the cash register was Nidia Delacruz, 21, who allegedly processed all the fraudulent purchases.

Shaw. (DCPI)

“The parking garage attendants at the center of this long-term investigation drove off with a lot more than their victims’ cars,” said District Attorney Vance.

Prosecutors say the shoppers also went on sprees at several Home Depot and Verizon locations. The defendants are charged with grand larceny, identity theft, conspiracy, scheming to defraud and 53 counts of criminal possession of stolen property. A little simple math shows that the shoppers bought around 10 iPads or MacBooks each, all at the same store, all from the same register assistant. We guess B&H management must have thought there was a rash of of 20-year-olds in Midtown West starting up their own well-funded design companies.

These arrests come in a long line of parking attendant bandits caught by the cops. Four other defendants from five other garages also stand accused of skimming credit card details. District Attorney Vance is urging “New Yorkers and our city’s visitors to be vigilant against identity theft.” Very good advice. The Observer’s advice? Stop driving in Manhattan.

Olivier Nakache, Meryl Streep, Omar Sy, Eric Toledano and Mr. Weinstein.

As we walked out of Cipriani 55 on Wednesday, we were overwhelmed with confusion. What had just happened? Smiling, we headed for a cab, trying to piece together some sort of cohesion.

“We are getting people out of wheelchairs and walking," I recalled  Matthew Reeve saying at the beginning of the evening, poised on the red carpet of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation annual Magical Evening. 'That involves fundraising.”

“Its a wonderful chance to celebrate what the organization has accomplished and remind everyone what needs to be done, whilst remembering my father and step mother’s legacy.”

With the evening's noble purpose clearly set in our minds, we were ushered to our tables.

Good Morning America anchors Josh Elliot, Sam Champion and Lara Spencer kicked off the proceedings with a champagne toast. The taste of bubbly fresh on our lips, the presentation of the Christopher Reeve Spirit and Courage award soon followed.  We were inspired by James Dasavano's struggle to reverse his mother’s paralysis, a fete he accomplished with the help of his family and the foundation. Tears almost came to our eyes when we saw his mother walk beside him to the podium.

A little break in the ceremonies gave us time to gather our emotions and tuck into the starter and eyebrow-raising pop performance by Jason Derulo. “I suffered a broken neck when performing a routine back flip tuck preparing for my tour this year. When I heard that they reached out to me I said, 'absolutely.' I had to move a couple things around but I felt like nothing else was more important than this,”  Mr. Derulo told us, honored to participate in the evening.

After dinner we headed over to have a chat with masochistic magician David Blaine. When we got nearer we realized that he was eating glass to the audience of Meryl Streep and Harvey Weinstein. The night was careening into chaos. After Ms. Streep ran away in disgust we asked Mr. Blaine how he came to be involved in the organization.

“Want to see a trick?” he asked.

Please no, not the glass. Mercifully he pulled out a pack of cards and proceeded to perform a whirlwind of card tricks. “You can’t tell anyone about these tricks because they are going to go in my new show," he said as he pulled a folded four of spades from underneath my watch.

We suddenly heard Ms. Streep at the podium, poised beside Mr. Weinstein, the two having escaped Mr. Blaine to present an award to Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the directors of the French box office hit The Intouchables. Ms. Streep almost gave the dagger shaped award to the producer Mr. Weinstein.

“Do I give to you now ... between the eyes?”

Do it Meryl. She didn’t and after a slightly unbelievable story about how he and Johnny Depp were the reason the handicap access bill was passed in the Senate, Mr. Weinstein handed off the award. Omar Sy, the lead in The Intouchables, gave an extremely moving speech which was soon followed by some more pop mayhem in the form of Mr. Derulo’s girlfriend Jordin Sparks. Earlier she had told us that “anytime I can be at a place where people are trying to make a difference or trying to change things I feel super. Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve are Superman and Superwomen so that is quite fitting.”

Her songs following us, The Observer headed for the door. Before we could exit, however, we were stopped by a camera crew for yet another Jersey reality show as they filmed what appeared to be two very tiny orange people. At that point nothing could surprise us.

No bar is an island.

Jumping on the bandwagon, Jackie’s 5th Amendment, a Park Slope Bar, has petitioned the United States government to secede from the neighborhood in which it resides.

Earlier we reported how a few misguided souls living in Mckibbin Lofts wrote a petition to secede from Williamsburg and become the “newer hipper neighborhood” of East Williamsburg. Well Jackie’s 5th Amendment has taken it a step further by wanting to become a neighborhood unto itself. We're not kidding.

Jackie's petition reads as follows:

“Due to the changing nature of the neighborhood and the fact that we are beginning to take offense when potential customers come into the bar, look around them with disdain, and leave, immediately, we the people of Jackie's 5th Amendment at 404 5th Avenue request the permission of the United States Government to peacefully secede from Park Slope and become our own neighborhood, to be tentatively known as "Brooklyn.””

The petitioners list "Civil Rights and Liberties, Climate Change, Human Rights" as the relevant issues.

And ... now this is officially a thing. Soon there will be heavy-haired bartenders all over New York City, even the country, petitioning President Obama to make their place of work, their work/life/studio space and their single speed into their own much trendier, "grittier" neighborhood nexus.

How will the POTUS find the time deal with such pressing requests? He must placate the self loathing denizens of New New York immediately. They can’t bear to stay where they live anymore because it just doesn’t have the edge that it had a decade ago (when their driver's licenses still read "Kansas").

Fuck the fiscal cliff, Obama, these hipsters need a hip replacement.

As of writing, Jackie’s petition has 20 overly practiced signatures. Well, to those who signed it, we have a few issues:

1. Brooklyn is already named Brooklyn.

2. You clearly consider yourself to be, as the East Williamsburg petition brags, a “genuinely dangerous bar.” Congratulations. There are never fights in our local. It's so boring.

3. You are on Fifth and Seventh. You are in the middle of Park Slope. You will forever be surround by the trustifarians you despise. Encircled by entitlement. Land locked baby-bankers. Here's a thought: Move?

4. When you walk into a "fancy" bar, what do you do? We reckon you probably look around with disdain and leave immediately. Give and take, okay?

Kimberly Guilfoyle and Deborah Norvillee.

“It's the charity with longest, most difficult name to say” host Deborah Norville justified as she failed to get the name right at the first, second and third time of asking. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children hosted its annual gala in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza on Tuesday testing all invitees' verbal dexterity and generosity. “But it also does the most difficult work.” Good save Ms. Norville.

Founded in 1875, a time when there laws protecting animals but not children from cruelty, the NYSPCC is the oldest children’s charity in the world. It is perhaps surprising that this was honorees John and Margo Catsimatidis first appearance at the gala as they are prolific benefactors of children’s charities across New York. Sitting with them at a well positioned table from which they rarely left, we asked how they got involved.

“We have always been supporters of children’s charities and when we saw the great work that this charity was doing and we wanted to be a part of it.”

Why children’s charities we asked?

“They are our future and need to be nurtured.” Margo was, near verbatim, repeating the brief speech she made earlier in the evening.

Are you having fun tonight?

“Yes.”

Anything in particular?

“The company.”

Brilliant.

Mr. Catsimatidis continued to confirm himself as a potential GOP candidate for mayor.“I’m setting up a exploratory committee in the coming weeks to decide on that.” We queried if the hurricane had crystallized his intentions but he feels that his motives and the needs remain the same.

“He was young,” we overhear Mrs. Catsimatidis say to her husband as we moved to the over-sized dance floor. "It’s a baby face, but we are accepting donations."

Fox News’ Kimberley Guilfoyle was attending and it was clear that this was a cause close to her heart. “I was prosecutor for the district attorney’s office and my specialty was child abuse cases. Investigating, prosecuting but also helping to rehabilitate.” She was delighted to be able to bring her own son Ronan. “I thought it would be good for him to see how a big group like this can come together to help children. We need to keep this group going. He also loves dancing.” As we moved to leave we glimpsed tux wearing toddler Ronan dancing ferociously. The grin plastered to his face was a poignant image of what the charity and the night set out achieve.

Zapata and Vergara. (Eugene Mim/Patrick McMullan)

“I turned the penthouse of The Bowery in to my studio ... I have a studios in Paris and L.A., so I go back and forth,” Domingo Zapata said as he moved intimately among a crowd of familiar faces. If upstairs was the studio, then the second floor of the hotel was his gallery space. Large canvases of his art, all paying homage to American pop culture, were on display—works exhibiting a distinctly playful nature, exemplified best by a painting of Superman flashing a peace sign, proclaiming he was available for hire.

“I love sharing my work with my friends. It's intense, but good.”

With friends like his—a bevy of beautiful muses including the likes of Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Lindsay Lohan and attendee Sofia Vergara—he's not exactly lacking in inspiration. 

Ms. Vergara, wearing a faint-inducing mini-dress, shared the red carpet with Mr. Zapata, without her new fiancé Nick Loeb. She did manage to find time to take a few (more) photos with Mr. Zapata, though. The room abuzz, packed with buyers and boozers alike, we squeezed through the wall-to-wall crowd, taking in Mr. Zapata's whimsical interpretations.

“I wanted to do a tribute to the Bowery and East Village and Manhattan and the graffiti that you see around the city. I also love movies and classics like Superman and Pink Panther. These represent all that coming together.” Keen to express his broader artistic philosophy, he continued, “there is not such a thing as good art or bad—there are 50,000 artists in New York City. It's not about the quality, its about the creation; without creation we don’t even exist.”

Outside, a beautiful fall evening beckoned, with gorgeous women and cocktails abounding. Was tonight to be all work?

“We are going to a place called Provocateur in the Meatpacking District—it’s going to be a long night.”

Was this a common occurrence?

“There are 12- to 14-hour days where I'm painting. I have a lot of projects coming up; for instance, I’m working on paintings for the lobby of the World Trade Center.”

We left the artist to his own—which was cozily in the middle of a ever-growing crowd holding out hands to shake his—wondering if we were worthy of his canvas.