A man who appeared to be waving a knife — but was really waving a severed umbrella shaft — was tasered and subdued by police on the sidewalk in the 300 block of South Canal Street on the evening of Aug. 31.

An official with Megabus said that the individual was waving what looked like a large knife and threatening him with bodily harm for no apparent reason.

Amtrak police then chased the offender northbound along Canal, by Union Station, ordering him to drop the weapon. The offender persisted in waving the object, before police tasered the victim.

An ambulance arrived on the scene and transported the offender to Mercy Hospital. Police then discovered the weapon to be a broken umbrella shaft.

A suspect is in custody after allegedly stealing a $9,000 watch from Howard Frum Jewelers, 5 S. Wabash Ave., on the afternoon of Aug. 31. Howard Frum sales associates said that they are familiar with the suspect as he frequents the store.

The suspect had entered the store with a young child and asked to look at Rolex watches while his own watch was being repaired. Several watches were shown to the suspect and when the sales person turned away, the suspect placed one yellow gold ladies Rolex watch in his front pants pocket. The suspect then insisted that he needed his watch that was being repaired back because he was in a hurry.

The suspect then had his watch returned and he left the store. Five minutes later a sales associate realized that the watch was missing, and a review of video surveillance revealed the theft as well as the suspect and child leaving the area in a blue Dodge Caravan.

A man was threatened and lost his Compaq laptop computer and $60 at the Greyhound bus station, 630 W. Harrison St., on the afternoon of Aug. 31.

Two offenders approached the victim and the first offender said that he had a knife — and told the offender to go with him. The second offender then claimed to have a gun and the offenders then stole the victim’s possessions.

CTA platform robbery

A woman said that an offender forced her to give up her purse on the Harrison Red Line platform, 600 S. State St., on the morning of Sept. 3. The purse contained an iPhone, two credit cards and a state ID card.

While walking on the platform, the victim was approached from the rear. The offender said that he had a knife and told the victim to drop her purse and keep walking. The offender never showed a knife and fled toward street level; the victim, meanwhile, ran toward the approaching train.

Two pricy thefts were reported from the past week from Café Baci at 20 N. Michigan Ave.

On the morning of Aug. 30, someone stole an iPad from a café patron. The customer told police that while dining, she had walked across the street to Millennium Park and left her bag — containing the iPad — at the restaurant. When she returned about 15 minutes later, the bag and iPad were gone.

In a separate incident on the afternoon of Sept. 2, an offender stole hundreds of dollars worth of items from a victim who had gotten up to go to the bathroom. The items included the victim’s $200 purse, $100 worth of Chanel perfume, five credit cards, and $200 in cash.

Officers on patrol on a southbound CTA red line train arrested a man for playing three-card monte, on the morning of Sept. 1.

The officers were on the train near the CTA Roosevelt station when they observed the man playing the scam card game, where the person controlling the cards is the only one who can win.

The offender was placed into custody and a name check revealed an outstanding warrant.