More Evidence Of Quotas On Staten Island

With an overtime angle, to boot:

Two Staten Island cops are accused of writing motorists more than 40 bogus tickets while assigned to overtime duty, authorities said.

. . .

The accused officers submitted paperwork to their bosses to make it look like they were doing their jobs, but never gave the summonses to the unsuspecting motorists, sources said.

Maybe The Thought That You Just Blew Almost $200 At An Applebee’s Makes You Do Rash Things

Less dine and dash than binge and dash:

They feasted on shrimp and ribs, washing it down with booze and coffee.

And when it came time to pay their $170 tab Saturday afternoon at Applebee’s restaurant in New Dorp, [a Staten Island woman] and her friend handed over a Visa card.

When told the card was no good, the duo didn’t search their wallets for cash or another credit card, prosecutors contend. They didn’t even offer to wash the dishes.

Instead, they bolted without paying, cursing and yelling at a restaurant employee, said court papers.

Looking at the menu for the New Dorp Applebee’s, I’m confused. Double-Glazed Baby Back Ribs are $22.99. Double Crunch Shrimp is $13.99. That’s still under $40. How much booze and coffee can one possibly consume at an Applebee’s?

He Said By The Tree. [They Look At The Tree.] Do You See Any Others?

The Eltingville Transit Center is a modern transportation marvel, and deserves neither apathy nor condescension:

It’s got cleanish gray concrete floors, the island’s only MetroCard machine outside the ferry terminal, big windows onto a lot where any of 15 different buses is liable to pull up at any moment, vending machines that will sell you a bag of fat sourdough hard pretzels for 85 cents but not give change for a dollar, a round clock with large numbers on it and plenty of the Beckettian blend of incipience and boredom common to waiting rooms everywhere.

. . .

Emily, who wore hoop earrings, too, and had yellow police tape looped around her pants, said the same thing, differently.

“Staten Island is a miserably miserable place,” she said. “This is like a scaled-down version of a miserable place.”

Location Scout: Eltingville Transit Center.

Next Time, Please Make All Edits In Pencil

As the City budget looks grim for next year, the Staten Island Advance identifies ways the City is doing its best to use up whatever money is left in this year’s budget:

Fresh off the pointless labor of putting lines on a Dongan Hills street, the city Department of Transportation was painting the town again yesterday, this time laying reflective white stripes down the center of the West Shore Expressway.

Only problem is, the new paint was dropped right down the pothole-riddled center of the crumbling highway, which is itself slated for milling and repaving starting Monday night.

Many of the new hashmarks were actually painted inside the potholes, which had the comical effect of accentuating their depth and craggy edges.

That’s just the micro version of municipal waste. The Daily News’ Errol Louis discusses some macro issues here.

And You Thought The Coen Brothers’ Quirky Take On Life Was Out Of Touch With Reality

There should be a special charge added to offenses perpetrated by criminals who prey on people without legs:

A homeless man is accused of tying his legless friend to the bed in a Grasmere motel, hiding his prosthetic legs so he couldn’t get up, and stealing his property as he lay bound.

Carl Hughes, 33, committed the bizarre theft in the early morning hours on April 19 in the Cosmopolitan Motel at 1274 Hylan Blvd., police allege.

Hughes’ friend, 43-year-old Joseph Valente, was letting him stay in his room in the motel, according to authorities.

At about 2:10 a.m., Valente awoke to find himself tied at the chest with an electrical cord, police allege.

His prosthetic legs and his wheelchair had been moved away from the bed, a law enforcement source said.

Hughes was walking out of his room with a laptop, a debit card, a cell phone and unspecified medication, court papers allege.

Somehow, Valente managed to get free and contact authorities.

Police tracked Hughes to a park bench in Manhattan on Tuesday, and arrested him in connection with the crime, authorities said.

When an officer told him he was being taken to Staten Island to answer for a robbery, Hughes blurted out, “Oh, the guy with no legs!” the law enforcement source recounted.