NEW YORK – Police are searching for one man in at least 15 knifepoint robberies in Manhattan over the past month in which some victims had a knife put to their neck and at least one was beaten.
Police released multiple photos Wednesday of the man they’re searching for in the robberies. They believe he’s between 20 and 30 years old.
The spree began on Oct. 9, and the robberies have increased in frequency, with 11 of them in the past week and the most recent ones on Monday.
The knife-wielding thief has struck throughout Midtown, as well as in Hell’s Kitchen, Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side. Most of the robberies have taken place in the blocks just south of Bryant Park, between Broadway and Madison Avenue.
The robberies have netted the man more than $3,380 in cash, as well as bank cards, police said.
Among the locations targeted were a Chase Bank on East 42nd Street, a smoke shop on 10th Avenue, a jewelry store on W. 30th Street, a Dunkin' Donuts on Madison Avenue, a Subway restaurant on Broadway, and a deli on Second Avenue. Most of the victims were robbed on the street, police said.
In one of the robberies—at a smoke shop at 10th Avenue and W. 48th Street on Oct. 10—police said the suspect held a 48-year-old worker at knifepoint before repeatedly punching him in the face and stealing $580 from the register.
In several of the robberies, the man placed a knife to the neck of his victims, while demanding money, police said. When the Subway restaurant at 1400 Broadway was robbed, the man put a knife to a 47-year-old woman’s neck before stealing $600 cash from the register, according to police.
The most recent robbery was on Monday morning inside of a deli at E. 73rd Street and Second Avenue, where the robber pulled a knife on a 63-year-old man and stole $600 in cash from the register, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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