Blotter
Schlub snaps
It's hardly uncommon for a little spill to lead to some bad violence. It happens all the time in bars; a drink splashes, and before you know it, bullets are flying.
It wasn't quite that bad in Brooklyn last week-though the manager of a Flatlands Key Foods might disagree.
At about 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon, according to the New York Post, something spilled in one of the grocery store's aisles. No big deal, right? Happens all the time-some clumsy customer drops a bottle or knocks something off a shelf, and some minimum-wage schlub with a mop is sent over to take care of it.
The schlub in question this time was 42-year-old Harichan Dhanraj, who must've mopped up a million spills. But when his supervisor told him to clean up this one, something went wrong. Maybe it was his supervisor's tone of voice. Maybe he'd just cleaned up one spill too many. In any case, what he allegedly did instead was wallop his supervisor across the forehead with the mop handle.
It's unclear whether or not Dhanraj was aware that his supervisor was just recovering from brain surgery.
He couldn't have hit him that hard, though, given that the supervisor was still perfectly capable of walking to the phone, calling the cops and having Dhanraj arrested on assault charges.
-Harold Marzipan
NY's strongest
The trashman honks but once.
Kyle Spidle, one of those countless aspiring actors who's really a bartender, left his job at Monster Bar in the West Village shortly before midnight on Saturday. As has happened to all of us at one time or another, a car came up short on him while he was crossing at Grove and Waverly.
As he was walking too slowly for his own good, the driver of the car gently encouraged him along by honking his horn and leaning out the window to yell, "C'mon, faggot, learn to walk."
This did not have the desired effect. Rather, Spidle stopped walking completely, banged on the hood of the car and suggested that the driver "learn to drive."
Things went downhill from there. Not helping Spidle's situation at all was the fact that the driver of the car, Gary Rodriguez, 38, was a sanitation worker. New York's Strongest have never been known for coolheaded emotional stability. Worse, Rodriguez had two friends with him.
The men allegedly got out of the car. Spidle allegedly ran. They allegedly gave chase. And shortly thereafter Spidle was on his way to the hospital with a shattered jaw and other injuries.
His attackers were identified through the license plate of Rodriguez's car, and all three men were expected to turn themselves in to face hate-crime charges.
-Harold Marzipan