Blotter: Is It Safe?

It's unclear who called the cops to report a suspected burglary at a Long Island City office. Maybe it was someone who needed a root canal-or didn't-because when cops showed up, they found no immediate evidence of a robbery. They did, however, find plenty of evidence that some shady backdoor dentistry was going on. Jaime Tobon, 37, and his assistant, Marcella Velasquez-Gomez, 35, were playing a little make-believe in what was described as a "filthy" fake dentist's office furnished in minimalist dental style: a chair, some of those poking and scraping instruments, perhaps even a small stack of outdated magazines. They even had poor saps with tooth and gum problems lined up waiting to see them.

It's uncertain what caused police to suspect that Tobon wasn't a real dentist (maybe it was his t-shirt). In any case, he and his assistant are being charged with practicing medicine without a license and second-degree assault.

If Tobon had been quick enough to pass the place off as an S&M theme dungeon, he probably could have gotten away with it.