Looks Like North Brooklyn Has a Minor Crime Wave On Its Hands
A crime wave mostly comprised of what seems to be just one guy, but to be fair, it’s a pretty persistent guy. Bedford and Bowery reports this morning on NYPD alerts warning residents that a suspect—a black man in his twenties who rides a BMX bike—has robbed five people over the course of the past two weeks in the area of Greenpoint and Williamsburg stretching between McGuinness and North 12th, and Richardson and Driggs. And he seems to be targeting drunk people who are busy playing with their iPhones.
“He’s only been striking between 10:30pm and 1am,” 94th Precinct captain Stefan Komar told the site. “He looks for people who have their phones out, especially if they seem distracted or intoxicated. He rides up, grabs the phone and rides away.”
There have been similar, somewhat scarier rash of robberies in Bushwick (mainly between St. Nicholas Ave and Irving Ave, and between Gates and Harman), with fliers in the area warning that “residents walking home from bars and restaurants in the early morning hours are being robbed of their property by two to six male Hispanics using physical force or displaying a knife to steal the victims’ property.” And this, just after the Brooklyn Bike Patrol abruptly shut down operations. Maybe a good time to start springing for cabs, or at least, not wave your iPhone around so much on your way home from the bar?
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
