When Post reporters posing as prospective tenants answered the ads last week ... they were text-messaged back by unnamed real-estate salespeople. But each time the reporters tried to see the advertised apartments, they were met with excuses — they’re not available for viewing or they’re suddenly off the market.
They were then shown far less fashionable flats, and were ushered to the offices of St. Marks Place Realty at 36 St. Marks Place.
Dressed in a cheap suit, he launched into a high-pressure spiel: A just-viewed East Third Street apartment was listed by a major brokerage, and the rival firm was holding an open house that very afternoon. If the clients paid a $100 application fee on the spot and filled out a form, “We can stop them from renting it . . . This way we don’t lose it.”
A reminder….. that we invite you to join us under the midsummer sun at our Neighborhood Open Day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We watched him, and he eventually stole some lady’s purse. I chased after him, grabbed him, and before you know it the cops were on him,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said he recognized the suspect, wanted by police, and jumped into action when the man stole a woman’s purse as she sat in front of a restaurant on Avenue B.
Gonzalez said the man in the video is possibly connected to other recent purse thefts in the area.
“I thought, ‘Let me catch this guy, because he’s going to keep doing it again if he’s not caught,” he said.
Police initially came to the store to see if cameras captured the same suspect this past Sunday, turns out they did.
“I really don’t enjoy the beauty of the park anymore because I’m too scared to walk through it,” said NYU student Christine Gal, 19, who lives nearby. “I would say it has doubled in the last six months.”
A parks worker called the urban oasis “scary,” saying it’s riddled with bums who have drug problems.
One woman is worried about bringing her 6-year-old daughter to the park.
“Some of them are junkies. They’re standing there almost falling down or sitting there slumped over,” the 39-year-old woman said. “My daughters asks, ‘Mommy, why are the men sleeping?’ And that’s not something you want to explain to your child.”
Steve Lewis: What was the primary reason for closing and moving shop to Bushwick?
Erik Foss: The new East Village crowd and the flight of the creative types to creative Brooklyn. It was inevitable. NYC is an ever changing animal. I am just glad that I got to be here before downtown changed into what it is now.
David Schwartz: Ehh, not happy with the newbies in the East Village. Millenials don’t go out and the artistic ones left for Brooklyn digs 4 yrs ago.
