There May Be a Creepy Dude Lurking Around Local Playgrounds

This story kind of makes me want to vomit. A FiPS tipster recently sent us an account from local blog Bococaland wherein a man was reportedly seen approaching children and asking them if they were allowed to leave the park. Here's the story:

Today, around noon, I was with the kids at Pierrepont playground. We were getting ready to walk out and I stopped about 5 feet from the gate to talk to another mom. My boys were standing at the gate and a man came over and started talking to them, from outside the closed gate. I couldn’t hear what he said but as soon as I started walking over, he looked up and quickly walked off. I asked Henry what he said and Henry said, “he asked if I was allowed to leave the park.” This guy was completely normal looking (could have been anyone’s dad)– jeans, a blue short sleeve T-shirt, about 5′ 10″, caucasian with dark hair. I called the police and gave a description.

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Police Arrest Man In Subway Groping Incident

Police sketches still hang in the windows of local businesses

This past Wednesday, a man was arrested in Sunset Park for allegedly groping a woman at the 36th street D/N/R station at 4th Avenue. Though little information about the incident has been released, detectives told Community Board 7 members that they are still trying to determine if this suspect was involved in any of the other attacks spanning back to last Spring.

This attack comes on the heels of a New Year's Eve attack, in which a 23 year-old woman walking down 4th Avenue near 19th street around 1:30AM when she was grabbed from behind by a man described as Hispanic, in his mid-twenties and weighing between 150-175 lbs. The woman's boyfriend, who was walking with her, confronted the man, who fled the scene.

Ladies, if it's too frigid outside to grasp pepper spray with your bare hand while walking at night, there are still plenty of Brutus the Bulldog self defense keychains available for purchase. Grrrrrr.

[Via The Brooklyn Paper]

Sweetwolf's Got Vandalized...Who's Got Scoop?!

Some jackhole(s) threw a rock through Sweetwolf's front window last night, and owner Tim Judge is wondering if anyone has scoop? 

We're guessing that throwing a rock or a brick or a stroller or something through a window would probably make a lot of noise, so did anyone hear anything? Or see anything? They are located at 6th Ave and 12th Street.

If you see'd something, say something. 

image via Here's Park Slope

PARK SLOPE CRIME: You-n-the Po Po

So is crime in NYC *actually* down? There's recently been a lot of discussion about it, and apparently most people are doubtful. We recently received this note from an anon FIPS reader: 

"I noticed that you covered the sex assaults in park slope this year...and there seemed to be slow response by the police.  Bloomberg was all over the news last week about crime statistics. How NYC is the safest city in the United States and all the trends have improved since he became mayor. Yet, virtually every person I know in Park Slope has a story about being the victim of a crime .  Car break ins, robbery--the usual stuff. And when they call the police,  they are disuaded actively from filing a police report. Typical excuses are "there are no witnesses... there is nothing we can do," Etc.  So,  no police report,  no crime. Perhaps you can use your blog to highlight this kind of thing,  and ask people to [file a] report if this happens to them.Tell folks that they should insist that reports are filed so that crime trends can be accurate and the local police can be judged appropriately."

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Good Fences Make Good Teenagers: DOT to Fence In Footbridge

photo by Elizabeth Graham via The Brooklyn Paper

A couple of weeks ago we were updated on the recovery of Stephen Arthur, the Park Slope biker who was hit by a brick in Fort Greene last August while biking home from work. Apparently teenagers were standing on the footbridge over Navy Street that acted as a pedestrian connector between two housing projects. In the wake of the accident, the injured Arthur was mad as hell that police were not taking the matter seriously. To make shit worse, those dumb ass kids were still hitting bikers with golf balls, bottles and apples.

The 88th precinct responded by saying that they were working with the Walt Whitman and Ingersol housing projects to increase patrols in the area, which translates to: leave us the hell alone. 

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