SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Surveillance video via NY Post

Authorities have nabbed a man they say stole many of the 30 manhole covers in the last two months in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

The New York Post reports that they’ve arrested Andrew Modica, 46, in connection with the theft of Con Edison’s 320-pound cast iron covers, which he confessed to selling for about 12 1/2 to 15 centers per pound – or approximately $40 each. They cost the company $200 each to replace.

He was busted yesterday, when officers pulled him over in a stolen pickup truck near his home on 67th Street and 21st Avenue in Bensonhurst. He is charged with criminal possession of stolen property and criminal impersonation – the latter due to the fact that he dressed as a Con Edison worker in the course of his crimes.

According to the Post, Modica stole to fuel his addiction to crack, cocaine and heroin.

We received the following e-mail this morning. If you have any information, please help out:

My name is Masha, I wanted to let your blog know about my mother in law who has been missing since Tuesday (4/3/12) night.

Her name is Ludmila Tulman, well known in the Russian community as the previous owner of Restaurants Stolovoya/Pelmennaya on Ave U and Da-I-Net on 86th Street.

She is about 5’7, 160lbs, short red/brown hair, light eyes. Last seen on Brighton.  Left home at around 12am and never returned.   I am attaching a picture, if there is anything you can do to help us find her, it would be greatly appreciated.

You can contact me via email (mashatulman@gmail.com) or cell 917-699-7576.

One of Berger's 45 cats. (Photo: Katherine Gonzalez)

Bensonhurst Bean has a report about Barbara Berger, a Brighton Beach cat hoarder ordered by her landlord to give up all but two of her 45 feline friends or face eviction. Berger has teamed up with Brooklyn Animal Umbrella and Bensonhurst’s Petco at 2601 Stillwell Avenue to hold an adoption event all weekend long to place 20 of the cats in new homes.

Courier Life was first to report on Berger’s plight, in which her fed up landlord has threatened to give her the boot from her rent-stabilized Brighton Beach apartment if she can’t offload the cats. Berger heads to court next week to find whether or not she’s been granted a reprieve.

To adopt one of Barbara Berger’s cats, contact Josephine Marrero at Brooklyn.Rescue.Umbrella@gmail.com or visit Petco at 2601 Stillwell Avenue (corner of 86th Street) anytime over the weekend.

From our sister site, Bensonhurst Bean, comes the following announcement of a community town fair meeting tomorrow night, December 1, hosted by State Senator Marty Golden:

The following is a press release from the office of State Senator Marty Golden:

SENATOR GOLDEN TO HOST COMMUNITY TOWN FAIR FOR BENSONHURST AND GRAVESEND NEIGHBORHOODS

Brooklyn – State Senator Marty Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn) will host his next neighborhood town fair on Thursday, December 1, 2011 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Holy Family Home located at 1740-84th Street in Brooklyn.

The event, which will feature an opportunity for residents to have one on one conversations with City agencies in an informational fair setting, will also feature a town hall question and answer meeting. The NYPD will be offering crime prevention information and the Fire Department will be providing give-aways for your home.

Senator Golden has invited the following governmental agencies to also attend including the Departments of Buildings, Environmental Protection, Sanitation, Finance, Transportation, Parks, the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.

Members of the media are welcome. [Ed. -- Good to know!]

The Holy Family Home is located at 1740 84th Street near Bay 16th Street.

For more, contact Senator Golden’s Community Office at (718) 238-6044 or visit his website here.

A totally unrelated photo

Is this really news anymore?

Bensonhurst Bean reports:

A federal Medicare fraud task force has charged five individuals with conspiring to launder profits from defrauding Medicare at three local medical clinics.

According to an FBI press release, Larisa Shelabadova, 34, Alexander Zaretser, 31, Anatoly Kraiter, 33, Vladimir Kornev, 52, and Yelena Galper, 38 were charged by the Brooklyn Medicare Fraud Strike Force for their participation in the money laundering scheme. The release also states that five other individuals were charged from a previous indictment dating back to October 2010.

I think Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Bensonhurst ought to kick off a competition to see which neighborhood gets hit with the most fraud busts. Which do you think wins out? (Not taxpayers, that’s for damn sure.)

Read the full story on Bensonhurst Bean.

Waters submerged the tracks of the N line at 86th Street. Check out Bensonhurst Bean for the story.

It’s on. It’s off. It’s on again. It’s off. Really, this time it’s actually off. And possibly for good.

The 18th Avenue Feast – a.k.a. Feast of Santa Rosalia – has been cancelled, organizers told our sister site, the Bensonhurst Bean.

“There isn’t gonna be a Feast,” Joe LaMotta, one of the festival organizers, told Bensonhurst Bean. “The Festa di Santa Rosalia is cancelled.”

“Everyone thinks it’s on based on what was reported [by Courier-Life and Brooklyn Paper], but that was very inaccurate,” said a staffer for a local politician who requested to remain anonymous. “It’s definitely not on as of right now.”

According to the Bensonhurst Bean’s report, delays in obtaining permits, changing demographics and even lasting effects from a massive FBI mafia bust earlier this year are among the many reasons that organizers have been unable to pull it together.

Organizer Joe DeMarco, though, is asking residents to be at peace with the decision, and instead help them plan for a new event next year – which could be hampered by the city’s tough permit-approval process.

Meanwhile, we’re wondering what it must feel like over at the Brooklyn Paper, who gloated earlier this week on Twitter when they claimed the event would be 10 days, rather than one as the Bean previously reported.

“Brooklyn Daily [the new website for Bay News and other Courier papers] gets the story right (unlike #sheepsheadbites): 18th Ave. fest to go off without a hitch,” they said via the Brooklyn Paper’s Twitter account.

Another day, another story that needs to be corrected at the News Corp.-owned publication…

Sometimes in news reporting you get some bad information, and despite your best efforts, it never becomes clear that it’s bad until it has been published.

Turns out that was the case with the 18th Avenue Feast in Bensonhurst – and I suppose we should’ve known better than to trust a city website for accurate information.

Our sister site, Bensonhurst Bean, noted that the city’s event calendar listed the event as a one day affair – a story Sheepshead Bites picked up on. Turns out, it was all a big typo.

Bensonhurst Bean reports:

Due to a typo on the city’s (still uncorrected) official event calender, we – and some city officials – were led to believe that the feast would be cancelled.

It looks like the 18th Avenue Feast will be held, as usual, for 10 days.

According to the mayor’s office, the 2011 Festa di Santa Rosalia  will take place from August 25 to September 4.

We’re glad to hear this great neighborhood tradition is sticking around, and we do regret any confusion or inconvenience the original posts may have caused.

A booth at the 18th Avenue Feast in 2009 (Source:Whiskeygonebad/Flickr)

(UPDATE [8/17/11]: Turns out the feast will be a full 10-day event. The original confusion was due to a typo on an event calendar that had us – and some city officials – confused. Check out this update for more information.)

Original post:

Our sister site Bensonhurst Bean has scooped the mainstream media again, discovering that the annual week-long tradition of the 18th Avenue Feast – aka Festa di Santa Rosalia – has been cut down to a one day event.

The Bensonhurst news blog reports the feast organizers have only requested permits for one day: Thursday, August 25, from 5 p.m. to 10 pm. It will be held on 18th Avenue between 67th Street and 75th Street.

Amidst swirling rumors, the district manager of Community Board 11 sought to clear things up for Bean readers:

“It is my understanding that the city is awaiting additional paperwork from the organizer, which I believe they are addressing,” District Manager Marnee Elias-Pavia told the Bean. “Regarding the shortening of the feast, the (city’s) website shows it as one day. Community Board 11 has not received any notification that there have been any changes to the permit.”

That’s being greeted as good news by at least one 18th Avenue business owner, who said a “cancellation would be excellent news, because the Feast takes a lot of business away from 18th Avenue merchants, who pay rent to have stores on the Avenue.”

It appears Brooklyn has been home to a number of festival reductions or outright cancellations this year, including four in Flatbush alone, when the city said financial restraints are too much to justify street closures.

However, Bensonhurst Bean points out that a number of new festivals have popped up in Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn, raising the question – yet again – is Southern and Central Brooklyn getting the short end of the stick?

Read Bensonhurst Bean’s full report.

A man drowned in Gravesend Bay on Sunday, after a freak accident left him helpless in the waters.

Police believe Florijan Kasumovic, 73, of New Jersey, may have fallen overboard just before 1:00 p.m., getting his leg caught in the railing. He dangled over the side of the 21-foot-vessel with his head submerged in the waters, unable to pull himself back up.

Kasumovic was dead when police arrived, and authorities towed the boat back to a Sanitation Department pier in Bath Beach.

[Daily News via Bensonhurst Bean]