By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A woman accused of being a serial pickpocket in Chinatown was ordered held on $124,500 bail Tuesday after earlier bail amounts failed to keep her from heading back to the streets after her release, the District Attorney's office said.
Ha Vasko, 67, has a total of four open cases in Manhattan for allegedly stealing wallets and cash from victims near Canal Street including Hester, Forsyth and Division streets — just blocks from the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse where she keeps being arraigned.
According to her lawyer, Vasko is "well to do" and lives with her husband in Florida, a retired businessman. But prosecutors say she spends most of her time bouncing back and forth from court appearances at 100 Centre Street and Canal Street, just two blocks away, where she allegedly runs her scam.
Vasko, who claims she is a diagnosed kleptomaniac, is currently being held at Rikers, according to the Department of Correction website, after her most recent arrest on March 21. In that case, Vasko was hit with charges of grand larceny, possession of stolen property and jostling.
She allegedly "jostled" three women outisde 88 East Braodway on Jan. 18, but did not get any cash or valuables. She is also accused of taking $50 and credit cards from a victim on Hester Street on Dec. 7, 2010 and with taking $500 in cash from a woman's purse at Canal and Mulberry on June 5, 2010.
On March 21, her most recent arrest, she took $350 in total from the bags and pockets of four victims near Forsyth and Division Streets, prosecutors said.
The Vietnamese-born Vasko allegedly told police that she targeted Chinese people because she "hates" them, that "they sell fake stuff" and "get benefit cards [but] don't contribute anything back."
"I take money and give it to people who need it," Vasko, who claims to be a Robin Hood of sorts, said, according to prosecutors. "I used to own a restaurant. I don't need the money that I take. I give it all away."
Her lawyer, Richard Wojszwilo, also said she has a long history of mental illness and depression, which has worsened since her 103-year-old mother was admitted to a Florida nursing home.
Wojszwilo requested her case be referred to the Mental Health Court, but prosecutors argued against it, claiming a two-page report from a psychiatric professional was not persuasive proof she could be helped.
"She has been seeing the psychiatrist for 20 years and it is not working," Assistant District Attorney Rachana Pathak said Tuesday.
