A man and woman are wanted in connection with six robberies committed in Harlem and the Bronx within the span of six days, source said. In each of the robberies the man has threatened store employees by displaying a note demanding money and by claiming he was carrying a gun, police said.
The robbery string began Friday December 30, 2016 around 12:20 p.m., when an unknown man entered a supermarket on Morris Avenue near East 163rd Street in the Bronx. After the man showed a 23-year-old employee a note on his cell phone demanding money he was given $80 and fled the store, NYPD said.
Later that day, around 5:15 the man entered a cellphone store on West 125 Street near Fifth Avenue in Harlem and repeated the same routine. This time the store employee refused to give the robber any money and the man fled the store empty handed, police said. About 35 minutes later the man entered another cellphone store on Amsterdam Avenue near West 144th Street. The man demanded money and threatened to shoot a store employee but again left the store empty handed, police said.
On January 1, 2017 the accused robber entered a convenience store on Broadway near West 149th Street in West Harlem around 11:10 a.m. for his fourth robbery attempt, police said. The alleged stick up man followed his routine of displaying a cell phone message and threatening a store employee with a gun, but again had no luck getting any money, NYPD said.
Through the first four attempted robberies the man batted .250 with a total score of $80 police said.
On Jan. 2 the robber returned to the Bronx, and this time he brought a friend along, police said. The man and a woman entered a furniture store on Westchester Avenue near Simpson Street around 1:30 p.m and demanded a female employee open the store’s safe, police said. The store employee failed to open the safe and the robbers fled the store with $300 they stole from a purse, NYPD said.
Two days later the man and women entered a cellphone store on Grand Concourse near East 183rd Street around 5:48. The robbers passed an employee a note demanding money and the employee handed them $1,100 from the cash register, police said.
The male suspect is described as in his late teens or early 20s standing 6-feet tall and weighing around 200 to 230 pounds, police said. The female suspect is simply described as “heavy set,” police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577. All tips are confidential.
Photos by NYPD
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