Wily Coyote Captured In New York City

A wily coyote evaded New York City police for two days before being nabbed in a parking garage. It was the fourth coyote sighting in Manhattan this year.

The animal first eluded police capture Wednesday near the Holland Tunnel. It was spotted Thursday afternoon on the West Side Highway, and police chased it to an open-air garage in Tribeca.

Officers cornered the coyote, sedated it with a dart and then carted it off to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Animal welfare officials will observe the animal before deciding where to take it.

Last month, three coyotes were spotted on the campus of Columbia University. Earlier this month, one was seen in Chelsea.

Cops Keep Pounding On The Wrong Door!

Cheesecake in hand, the police commissioner personally apologized Friday for the 50 or so mistaken, door-pounding visits that police have made to the home of a bewildered elderly Brooklyn couple in the past eight years.

It seems a glitch in computer records had led them over and over to Walter and Rose Martin’s modest home in the Marine Park neighborhood, about 7 miles southeast of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The most recent intrusion came Tuesday, with officers pounding on both the front and back doors, yelling “Police, open up!”

On Thursday, detectives from the NYPD’s Identity Theft Squad went to see the Martins again — this time to apologize. “And we wanted to be sure perps weren’t using that address for identity theft,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told The Associated Press on Friday.

The detectives told 82-year-old Rose and 83-year-old Walter that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had ordered them to solve the problem, which started eight years ago and was first reported this week in the New York Daily News.

Weatherproof To Take Down Obama Billboard

Weatherproof Garment Co said it will take down a Times Square billboard of U.S. President Barack Obama wearing one of its coats, agreeing to a White House request even though the company said it had legal grounds for using his image in its advertisement.

The privately held New York company said it made its decision after speaking with White House lawyers last week.

The ad, which shows the president during a visit to the Great Wall of China, went up without Obama’s permission, clashing with a White House policy disallowing use of the president’s image or likeness for commercial purposes.

“We made the commitment to the White House, and we are going to take it down even though it’s a very gray area and we were advised by a lot of people to leave it up,” company President Freddie Stollmack told Reuters.

“In this case, discretion is the better part of valor,” he said. “We don’t want to alienate the White House and win the battle and lose the war.”

The ad won’t come down immediately. Stollmack said a new advertisement had to be created first.

Hundreds Strip For NYC No-Pants Subway Ride

Hundreds of New Yorkers have been riding the city’s subway trains in their underwear.

They stripped down to their undies on Sunday for the ninth annual No Pants Subway Ride.

The idea is to act like nothing unusual is going on.

Participants met up at six locations throughout the city. They formed groups and dispersed to subway stations to catch trains. Once inside the subway cars, they began calmly removing their pants and folding them up.

Most people read magazines or chatted with their companions like any other straphanger.

The event started in 2002 with just seven people. It has spread to other cities.

The stunt is organized by Improv Everywhere, a group that says its mission is to cause “scenes of chaos and joy in public places.”

Ivana Trump Kicked Off Plane

Ivana Trump was removed from a plane at Palm Beach International Airport on Saturday after she allegedly became belligerent when a couple of screaming kids started running up and down the aisle.

According to police, the former Mrs. Donald Trump cursed at the children and became even more aggravated when the flight attendants on the New York-bound Delta Airlines plane tried to calm her.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies asked Trump to voluntarily exit the plane, but when she refused she was then escorted off.

Trump filed for divorce from her fourth husband earlier this month.

She was not charged in the incident.

Anthony Weiner Saves Yom Kippur For Yankee Fans

ESPN and Major League Baseball have agreed to switch the starting time of a Yankees-Red Sox game to avoid conflicting with Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

ESPN told The Associated Press that the Sept. 27 game was returning to its original start time of 1 p.m. EDT. It had been changed to 8 p.m. to accommodate ESPN’s schedule; Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and atonement, begins at sundown that evening.

“I am pleased we were able to resolve this sensitive issue that impacted many baseball fans and are able to move the game at Yankee Stadium to 1 p.m.,” Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement, crediting ESPN for helping to “solve this conflict.” ESPN will still televise the game.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., had sent a letter to Selig and ESPN President George Bodenheimer urging the game be returned to its original afternoon start time.

“There’s no reason why the largest Jewish community in the country should be punished for a last-minute scheduling swap,” Weiner wrote in the letter.

Weiner told the AP that he had spoken with Selig earlier in the day. “He said he agreed, and that he had heard from his own rabbi, that this was a problem,” Weiner said. “He said he was riding ESPN to change their position.”

“It was a basic thing that they can do to be sensitive, and the right thing was done,” he added.

The congressman said that ESPN had the contractual right to change the starting time. “There is the contract, there is the major league rule book, but then there is a higher authority that was dictating a lot of this for fans,” he said.

Earlier this year, the NFL agreed to move the start time of the New York Jets’ home game against the Tennessee Titans on the same day from 4:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. That change was made after Jets owner Woody Johnson sent a letter to commissioner Roger Goodell suggesting the switch, so that fans could arrive home before sundown.

Park Offers X-Rated Views Of Standard Hotel Guests

Some guests at a New York City hotel near an elevated park have been offering unobstructed views of themselves.

Guests at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan keep failing to close the curtains as they frolic naked in front of their rooms’ floor-to-ceiling windows, easily viewed from the High Line park below. The park recently opened atop an abandoned elevated rail line.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has called the hotel’s window action “unacceptable.”

Aaron Lipman works in the neighborhood and says the shows are “healthy and fun.” He says they’re like TV’s “Wild Kingdom.”

The hotel issued a statement saying its managers will try to “remind guests of the transparency” of the windows.

The hotel won an award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for best new building erected last year.

Naked Cowboy Runs For New York Mayor

The Naked Cowboy might be considered a quirky asset to New York City’s tourism industry. Now the Times Square traffic-stopper says he’d make a mighty fine mayor.

 Robert Burck, who performs in his underwear has made his candidacy official.

 He aims to give the buttoned-up, third-term hopeful, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a run for his money.

 Burck says: “Being naked is a whole lot more than having no clothes on: It’s about transparency in politics, it’s about telling the naked truth.” 

 Burck does a brisk business posing for pictures with tourists. 

His standard fashion statement is a cowboy hat, boots, white briefs and a guitar strapped to his bare chest.

 As for campaign funds, he says: “I have no expenses. I own 40 pairs of underwear, a car and a suitcase.”

Peter King Shoots Off His Big Mouth

New York Congressman Peter King says in a YouTube video that Michael Jackson was a “pervert.”

King said society is “glorifying” a “low-life” while ignoring the efforts of teachers, police officers, firefighters, veterans and volunteers.

Jackson was acquitted of molesting a boy after a dramatic trial.

In the video, the congressman says the “day in and day out” coverage of Jackson’s death is “too politically correct.”

He conceded that Jackson “may have been a good singer” and “did some dancing.”

King is among the possible Republican contenders for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

King has said in the past that he represents the interests of “blue-collar conservatives.”

FDNY Firefighter Saves Man From A Gowanus Death

A New York City firefighter jumped into the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn to save a driver from his sinking car.

Richard Staiti needed a hepatitis shot after his time in the canal, notorious for industrial pollution.  He had gone in to get the driver of a Volvo that went in the water.

Staiti ended up spending more time in the water than necessary, after he was told there had been children in the car. That turned out not to be true.

Police charged the car’s operator with drunken driving.