QUEENS
* Police are asking for the public’s help in catching a serial sex fiend behind a reign of terror in southeastern Queens.
The suspect has been linked to four brutal attacks in Springfield Gardens and Jamaica over the past three weeks – two of which were knifepoint rapes, police said.
In all of the cases, the victims were followed or forced away from bus stops and attacked.
In the two most recent cases, they were able to fend off the attacker.
The suspect is in his 20s, stands 5-foot-8 and has a medium build and close-cut black hair.
STATEN ISLAND
* A parolee snatched a chain from a boy who was stepping off a city bus in New Springville, authorities said yesterday.
Charles Jenkins, 23, confronted the victim at Nome and Richmond avenues at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Jenkins then grabbed the boy’s gold chain and crucifix from around his neck and ran away, cops said.
Several bus riders called 911, and the officers who responded soon arrested the suspect, who was charged with robbery and grand larceny, according to a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
* A Port Richmond furniture-store employee confessed to swiping thousands of dollars in cash from the shop’s safe, authorities said yesterday.
Oscar Perez, 23, allegedly removed an envelope containing $2,400 from the safe at Divine Wood Furniture and Bedding on Port Richmond Avenue on July 21 after he blocked the lens of a surveillance camera.
The next day, the store owner noticed the money was missing and called cops.
Under police questioning, Perez copped to the cash grab and was arrested Tuesday and charged with grand larceny, according to the DA’s office.
MANHATTAN
* Four cops were injured after chasing three teenage purse-snatchers who had attacked and robbed a pair of Spanish tourists in Central Park, authorities said yesterday.
The couple was strolling through the park near West Drive at West 85th Street, shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday when they were confronted by the three young thugs. One of the attackers punched the man, 33, in the face, and the other snatched the 26-year-old woman’s purse.
The crooks then chased the victims through the park.
Cops spotted the melee and wrestled with two of the suspects before taking them into custody. The third got away.
The thugs, both 15, were charged with robbery and resisting arrest, police said.
The four officers were taken Lenox Hill Hospital with minor injuries. The tourists were not seriously hurt.
* A Hell’s Kitchen store customer who became enraged over the price of cigarettes was arrested for smashing a clerk in the head with a milk crate, authorities said yesterday.
Ronald Henderson, 62, clashed with the worker in the bodega on Ninth Avenue near 41st Street at around 6:30 p.m. on June 29.
He allegedly picked up the crate and threw it at the clerk, hitting him in the mouth.
The victim needed eight stitches to close a wound.
Henderson fled, but was tracked down Tuesday and charged with assault and weapon possession, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
* A teenage burglar was busted breaking into a locker at Hunter College, authorities said yesterday.
Mitchell Gardner, 17, allegedly used bolt cutters to clip locks in incidents between July 31 of last year and Feb. 7.
In each case, he swiped credit cards from the lockers.
Gardner returned to the locker room on Monday and was caught by a school employee after he had broken into another locker, sources said.
He was charged with burglary and grand larceny, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA’s Office.
BROOKLYN
* A Long Island man roughed up a traffic agent who had just given him a parking ticket in Flatbush, authorities said yesterday.
Salvatore Occhipinti, 53, was in a store on Nostrand Avenue near Avenue I at 3 p.m. Wednesday when he spotted the agent ticketing his car, which was illegally parked at a fire hydrant, cops said.
After confronting the agent, Occhipinti poked him in the nose and knocked off his cap, cops said.
The agent called cops, and Occhipinti was busted on charges of attempted assault and menacing.