THE BLOTTER
ISSUE № 0086 — 03-16-26
BY: M.L. Nestel
Illustration by Rob Weiss
The Blotter.* A roundup of happenings in Gotham’s mean streets (and from time to time the tri-state region). Each item provides a staticky glimpse into the sleepless city’s peripheral misdemeanors, felonies, and misadventures.
⬛ MANHATTAN
▀ Fort George: Clashing Gun-Packing Gal Pepper-Sprays Deli Clerks
SHE BROUGHT THEM to tears.
A 36-year-old lost it inside a deli.
She was at first a customer when stepping into the Hillside Gourmet Deli back at around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 24.
The woman started locking horns with the two male clerks, ages 35 and 52. Did she order a sandwich and only get a couple slices of turkey? Or denied a comp set of matches with her cigs?
Hard to say.
But she took enough defense in the moment to go on the offense.
Authorities say she drew a pepper spray dispenser — dousing both men and then sprinting away.
Responding officers rushed to the scene after 911 was dialed, reporting an assault. They combed around the premises to find the suspect walking on West 193rd Street off Broadway.
When they snared the woman (who lives very close by the deli) they found she was packing more than pepper spray; but also a Taurus 9mm pistol in her handbag.
⬛ THE BRONX
▀ Fordham Heights: Mugger Pummels Man For His Checks
IF CASH IS then for this perp — checks are queen.
At around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 31, a 35-year-old man was especially rowdy while inside an apartment located on East 183rd Street and Waldon Avenue.
The perp along with an unapprehended woman, punched the man’s face several times. After he struck him with a flurry of combos, he then allegedly kicked the victim numerous times to his noggin while he was crumbled on the floor.
As the man was fending off his attackers — the suspect picked the pockets of the victim’s coat and took two checks with his name on them.
While the woman got away, the suspected brute was busted the same day (and before the checks could be cashed).
He was hit with robbery, assault, harassment, and grand larceny from a person.
⬛ BROOKLYN
▀ South Williamsburg Grocery Thief Scores Quick Cash And Quicker Capture
A CAT BURGLAR he’s not.
A 27-year-old was nabbed not long after marching through a grocery and with a crowbar wrecked the facade to zip upstairs for a tidy score.
The suspect was caught on CCTV breaking into a Lefkowitz Grocery back at around 5 a.m. on Jan. 5.
Footage from the incident shows the accused jimmying the door lock and then venturing upstairs.
That’s where the handy crowbar came in good use.
The suspect allegedly breached another lock and swiped $3,000.
Cops were able to get clear images of the suspect that helped lead to a swift capture.
The suspect was netted for burglary, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal mischief (damage property), and trespass.
⬛ QUEENS
▀ Rosedale: Tech-Challenged Slayer Busted For Disappearing Bride’s Chopped Corpse In Jamaica Bay Wilds
A NOT-SO-TECH SAVVY Queens man is behind bars after cops used his own cell phone app to link him to a pair of Queens parks where his 33-year-old wife's dismembered remains were discovered.
Rupchand Simboo, 74, of Queens had reported his young bride, Salisha Ali, who had unexplainedly vanished at the request of her mother on July 19, 2025. The woman, living in Guyana, insisted he file the report with the NYPD when she couldn't reach her daughter (who labored as a home health care attendant in Brooklyn).
On September 22, 2025, NYC Sanitation workers clearing trash in a wooded area at Idlewild Park in Rosedale, Queens, made a grisly discovery: a human torso wrapped in a blue quilted moving blanket. The body had a revealing signature tattoos; the same one the recent widow had specified in his wife's missing persons report, according to court papers.
Simboo immediately became a person of interest in his much younger wife’s disappearance, but cops couldn't prove it yet.
His fate was sealed months later when the rest of the dismembered woman’s body — specifically Ali’s limbs and head were discovered in a wooded area of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, federal parkland near Broad Channel, Queens on March 6.
Those remains were identified as his missing wife who was a native of Guyana. She had met Simboo in his native Trinidad and Tobago. They carried on a long-distance relationship and their courtship had her taking a leap of love and moving to the US in 2024.
They married later that same year.
They settled in Simboo's South Ozone Park home, a few miles from the two Queens parks where her remains were found.
Armed with a search warrant, cops did a forensic search of the husband's "Life360" phone app and it put him at the precise GPS coordinates of the Wildlife Preserve on July 14, 2025, the day after she was last seen alive.
The app also places him at Idlewild Park in Rosedale the very next day, where sanitation workers later found the dismembered torso.
Armed with the incriminating electronic evidence that placed him at not one, but both crime scenes, cops executed a search warrant at the now suspect mom’s home they shared.
There, investigators found plastic wrap and yellow tape; the same used to bind Ali’s torso.
In the garage, investigators found a moving blanket, the same type of which the torso was sheathed in the park, according to court papers.
When confronted with the damning evidence linking him to the crime, Simboo did not make any incriminating statements to police and did not provide a motive for the murder.
Simboo was taken into custody on March 13 and booked on murder, two counts of concealment of a human corpse, and two counts of tampering with physical evidence.
Simboo was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on March 11. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail pending a return to court next week.
In the meantime, he is cooling his heels on Rikers Island.
⬛ STATEN ISLAND
▀ North Shore: Manpower To Curb Home Burglaries
MEMBERS OF THE 120 Precinct huddle in advance of an effort to combat an uptick in home burglaries around the city.
⬛ EVIDENCE ART
▀ Variety Packs (Brooklyn, NY)
THE FRUITS FROM an overnight bust splayed out on a table following a detail’s run on a domestic call.
⬛ ET. AL
▀ Painful Pothole (New York, NY)
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▀ Pileup (New York, NY)
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▀ Cops Throw Towel In Drunken Bout (Queens, NY)
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▀ Disunion (New York, NY)
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*When perusing The Blotter, know 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.
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