On Staten Island on June 12, they stung Patrick McGraner of Atlantic Highlands, N.J. with an online ad. McGraner met his prospective buyer in a Home Depot parking lot and was nabbed. Later cops went to the Stapleton home of Jonathan M. Benitez, who was blowing off some of his fireworks, found his cache and took him in.

Last week the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau grabbed 40 cases from a couple of guys at Northern Boulevard and the Cross Island Parkway, and the NYPD Intelligence Division busted a Prospect Heights man and took "a large quantity of fireworks" from a warehouse in Gowanus.

And yesterday evening the Organized Crime Control Bureau picked up Karl H. Jurgensen and Fred M. Masso of East Islip at 20th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway, and took 42 cases of fireworks out of their Explorer. So if you were hoping they'd let up now that everyone's going broke and let us have these simple amusements, forget it. Photo (cc) Wesley Oostvogels.