QUEENS
*** A teen driver was killed yesterday when his van slammed into a concrete wall beneath a Long Island Expressway overpass in Bayside.
The 18-year-old driver may have been speeding on Francis Lewis Boulevard when he lost control at 9 a.m., police said.
The white 1995 Ford van spun out of control and crumpled when it slammed into the wall.
The teen, who was not immediately identified, was pulled from the wreck by firefighters and taken to New York Hospital Queens, where he was declared dead.
No other cars were involved.
THE BRONX
*** A Brooklyn boy has been arrested in the brutal stabbing of a University Heights youth.
Eddie Soto, 17, of 190 Willow St. in Brooklyn Heights, was charged yesterday with being one of three teens who attacked the 17-year-old victim in a gang dispute, police said.
The victim was stabbed twice in the arm and once in the chest near 188 Creston Ave. at 10 p.m. on Oct. 7, police said yesterday.
The victim, who was not identified by police, is recovering at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Police are still searching for the other two teens.
*** Police are searching for a man who threatened to kill employees in a robbery of a Baychester dry-cleaning store.
At about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, the thief pushed through the doors of the Expert Cleaners at 659 Morris Park Ave. with a large kitchen knife and threatened to kill two employees if they didn’t hand over all the cash from the register, police said yesterday.
The two victims emptied a large amount of money from the till and were not injured, police said.
*** A brazen robber made off with an armload of cellphones yesterday after jumping over a counter at an Eastchester store and grabbing as many as he could while holding workers at bay with a gun, police said.
The thief bounded the clear-plastic counter at the Hi Tech Wireless store on White Plains Road at about 9 a.m. – and used a gun to threaten an 18-year-old store clerk who tried to stop him, said cops.
No shots were fired.
The agile crook was described as about 18 years old, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds. He was wearing dark pants and a gray, hooded sweatshirt.
BROOKLYN
*** An innocent bystander stopped on a Bedford-Stuyvesant sidewalk to figure out from where gunfire he heard was coming – and found himself shot, police said.
Cops were searching yesterday for whoever shot the 26-year-old victim, who was struck near 411 Chauncey St. at about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Police said the victim stopped to look around when he heard loud gunshots across the street and was stunned to realize he was hit.
The victim dropped to the pavement after bullets tore through his left hip and arm, and police said he never saw who fired the shots.
The victim was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.
STATEN ISLAND
*** Two men were caught trying to break into a woman’s car after watching her lock an iPod in the trunk for safekeeping, police said yesterday.
William Reischour, 21, and Michael Marino, 32, were caught by cops as they tried to use a crowbar to get into the victim’s car – after they watched her put the $300 music player in the trunk and walk into her Midland Beach apartment, sources said.
The woman, who saw a commotion near her sedan after she parked at 2 p.m. Friday, called police as the men allegedly began trying to force the trunk open.
Police caught Marino, who lives on Railroad Avenue, and Reischour, the victim’s Poultney Street neighbor, near the scene.
Both were charged with attempted petit larceny.
*** A man who used a pen to add an extra digit to a U.S. Treasury check was caught two months after he walked out of a check-cashing business with $2,000 more than he deserved, police said yesterday.
Ronnie Manigault, 41, of 160 Broad St., allegedly drew a “2” in front of the $602 amount on a Child Tax Credit Payment check he cashed in August at a Stapleton business.
Manigault was arrested Thursday after the owner of the shop tried to get reimbursed for the amount he handed over to Manigault, and came up short.
The business owner contacted NYPD detectives – who investigated with the Secret Service, which oversees tax-check investigations.
Manigault was charged with forgery, fourth-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
*** A man was arrested and charged with trying to snatch money from a woman buying a meal at a Stapleton deli, police said.
Eddie McMaster, 27, of Brooklyn, allegedly walked up to a counter at the Island Food Market at 10:30 p.m. Thursday and grabbed $15 a customer was laying down to pay for a meal, police said yesterday.
McMaster grabbed the cash and tried to flee the deli at 231 Broad St., but store workers – reacting to the victim’s startled scream – were able to stop him before he could get out of the store, cops said.
Police charged McMaster with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.