By Drew Grant 4/09 2:32pm

Macklemore

Dangerous to your health (MTV)

Woman Chokes Out Boyfriend for Singing Macklemore’s ‘Thrift Shop’ Repeatedly

This just goes to show that even the best music in the world can turn ugly if sung too many times by your drunken boyfriend at his birthday party.

A 23-year-old Colorado woman named Samantha Malson was arrested this weekend after she choked out her boyfriend for singing “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore over and over, even when she asked “25 times” for him to stop. Unfortunately, it was her lover’s 26th birthday that evening and the victim was wasted (as birthday boys tend to get), leading to an unfortunate altercation in which Ms. Malson literally started choking the life out of her boyfriend rather than listen to lines like “Savin’ my money and I’m hella happy that’s a bargain, bitch” and “I’ma take your grandpa’s style, I’ma take your grandpa’s style.” Read More

By Kim Velsey 2/27 10:41am

Foreclosure Crisis

A Queens homeowner facing foreclosure. (NYTimes)

New York City Foreclosures Linked to Crime

New York City has, in many ways, been spared the worst ravages of the foreclosure crisis. A city of renters, where single family homes are the exception rather than the norm and co-op and condo boards regularly turn their noses up at perfectly decent financial packages, we have avoided the magnitude of problems suffered by many other American cities.

But foreclosures have still troubled the city—and often indirectly. For example, many renters in overleveraged multi-family properties suffered when landlords fell behind on payments and ceased to conduct maintenance. And where foreclosures have hit New York, they have also been tied to increases in crime, according to a new report by NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy. Read More

By Steve Huff 11/14/12 3:52pm

Crime

Julie Patz, on the Today show, two years after her son Etan's disappearance.

Pedro Hernandez Charged With Second Degree Murder in Death of Etan Patz

A New York grand jury has indicted Pedro Hernandez in connection with the 1979 death of Etan Patz. Mr. Hernandez, a 51-year-old resident of Maple Shade, N.J., has been charged with murder in the second degree. He was arrested in May 2012 after reportedly confessing to killing the little boy.

Etan Patz was on his way to school when he vanished from Soho on May 25, 1979. His disappearance became national news, his image eventually appearing on milk cartons across the country.

At the time, Mr. Hernandez was a stock clerk at a bodega near the Patz residence. According to a statement from NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Mr. Hernandez said he lured Etan into the basement of the bodega by promising the boy a soda. Read More

By Steve Huff 11/08/12 1:58pm

Crime

Crime Scene

Long Island Man Arrested for Black Friday Home Depot Extortion Plot

Federal and New York State authorities have announced the arrest of Deer Park, N.Y., resident Daniel Sheehan, age 50. Investigators say that in October, the Home Depot employee sent an anonymous ransom demand letter to a Huntington, N.Y., Home Depot, warning store management that a bomb was hidden in the lighting department.

This was allegedly intended to demonstrate the letter writer’s ability to easily conceal an explosive device inside the store. Read More

By Steve Huff 10/25/12 10:34pm

true crime

Crime Scene

Upper West Side Mother Finds Children Stabbed, Police Suspect Nanny

An Upper West Side mother came home to her La Rochelle apartment on Thursday and was confronted with a nightmare come true: two of her children brutally stabbed and bleeding in a bathtub and the children’s nanny nearby, bleeding from wounds in her throat.

The children later died.

The New York Times reported that the middle-aged nanny was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center where according to some reports she was in stable but critical condition. Police say a bloody knife was found near the injured nanny and that she is a “person of interest” in the deaths of the little girl, age six, and the two-year-old boy.

The Times interviewed another resident of the posh apartment building who witnessed the harrowing moments after the children’s mother discovered the scene: Read More

By Steve Huff 10/25/12 1:18pm

true crime

Gilberto Valle III (Facebook)

The Strange Case of NYPD Officer Gilberto Valle, Alleged Wannabe Cannibal

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the Halloween-worthy arrest of 28-year-old NYPD officer Gilberto Valle III today. Mr. Valle, who was stationed at the 26th Precinct, has been charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and illegal use of a federal law enforcement database.

Those charges aren’t strange at all, considering the crimes were allegedly committed as part of a plot with co-conspirators to kidnap and cannibalize as many as 100 women. Read More

By Chloe Ashby 5:40pm

Crime & Punishment

Smooth moves. (Reuters)

Burrowing Bandit Gets 28 Years for His Patented Two-Step Break-In Process

Normally, when you break into a home, you steal what’s inside. Taking a page from hedgehogs and jackrabbits, Shawn McAleese got dig and instead robbed the neighbors, hitting eight different businesses in the wee hours of the morning during a two-month spree this summer.

On August 27, in New York State Supreme Court, the defendant pled guilty to eight counts of burglary in the third degree. Today, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced his sentence: a 28 to 56 year stint in state prison. That is stiffer than some murders. Read More