UPPER EAST SIDE — A thief swiped a pasta maker worth $5,000 from an Italian restaurant last week, police said.
The suspect entered Cucino Ciano at 181 E. 78th St., near Third Avenue, around 2 a.m. on May 5, went to the basement and grabbed the kitchen appliance before fleeing, the NYPD said. The eatery was closed at the time, but the door showed no signs of a forced entry, police added.
Officials did not have a description of a suspect.
The rustic chic restaurant opened late last year after abruptly shuttering in Flatiron.
A manager at Cucino Ciano confirmed the theft, but declined to comment further.
Other notable incidents that occurred recently in the 19th Precinct include:
► Thieves hit the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore twice last week, stealing an employee's computer and two pricey books of the Bard's work in backs-to-back grabs, police said.
In the first incident, the manager of the store at 939 Lexington Ave. left a leather messenger bag holding a MacBook Pro laptop behind the store's counter about 6:30 p.m. on May 9, police said. She stepped away from the counter for a few minutes and returned to find the bag and computer, worth about $2,500, missing, the NYPD said. Police were reviewing security footage but have not yet identified a suspect.
A day later, a thief swiped pair of books worth between $70 and $100 each from the shop, police and the manager said. “On Saturday we had some of our large collected works of Shakespeare stolen when my colleague and I were working across the store,” said the manager, Marian, who declined to give her last name. “My co-worker saw the man and he ran out of the store.” The NYPD confirmed the second theft, which they classified as a petit larceny.
► Police arrested a man for stealing T-shirts from a Foot Locker store at 159 E. 80th St., the NYPD said. Two plainclothes officers saw the man swipe eight navy blue T-shirts about 1:30 p.m. on May 8, police said. When the man left the store, officers moved into to arrest him.
