Muffins Stolen at Gunpoint and other headlines from the Citizen app

My neighbors missed the Citizen alert about a pet monkey on the loose after an earthquake in April 2024 rattled its cage.

“It’s too stressful to read these,” grumbled a man who lives in my building and considers himself retired from just about everything, including community news.

He’s not the only one. Others say that they are overwhelmed by the negative news that comes in sometimes three times in five minutes.

Posts on cell phones alert users of crimes and incidents, from the tragedies of subway suicides, murders, and robberies around New York City to dogs lost and found, cats reunited with their owners, sex offenders who live nearby, fires, people stuck in elevators, carbon monoxide detectors going on, and national alerts that could impact us.

As a newshound who stays informed of goings-on around the city, a slow day is when a notification hasn’t arrived within a 10 minute span. The app boasts 10 million users, according to FOXBusiness.

The Citizen app, first released in 2017, provides users with real-time crime and safety alerts and allows us to read updates and add videos and comments. Sometimes there are hundreds of comments. The app aggregates 911 calls for fire, police, and EMS emergencies.

Muffins Stolen at Gunpoint is one of the alerts I’ve received.

Read more on my Substack, Pastrami a go-go and other wry tales of the city, by clicking here.