NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Police have arrested one man and are searching for more in a weeks-long robbery spree in which 21 victims were mugged, sometimes violently, by moped-riding marauders who stole or attempted to steal their belongings across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
The NYPD released a surveillance image showing two men on a moped as investigators continue to investigate the robbery pattern out of 10 precincts.
Joel Jimenez, 22, of Brooklyn, was arrested in the case and faces multiple charges, including robbery with a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property. It's unclear if Jimenez is believed to be one of the men seen in the NYPD image.
The spree stretches back more than a month, with the first robbery reported on Oct. 5 in Bushwick and the most recent on Nov. 4 in Midwood. The muggings happened at all times of the day but usually in the early morning hours or in the afternoon.
In nearly every robbery, an unsuspecting pedestrian was approached by two men on a moped who snatched their chains or demanded their property at gunpoint, the NYPD said. Several of the victims suffered minor injuries.
The victims range in age from 21 to 68 years old. They include women and men, though more than half are women.
The robberies happened in more than a dozen neighborhoods, including Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg, Sheepshead Bay and Midwood in Brooklyn; Ridgewood, Jackson Heights, North Corona and Glendale in Queens; and Chinatown, the West Village, the East Village and the Lower East Side in Manhattan.
The thieves were especially active in Ridgewood, where four muggings were reported. There were three in Bed-Stuy and two in Bushwick, police said.
While most of the victims were uninjured, a 40-year-old woman was grabbed and slammed to the ground by the men as she was walking on Walworth Street in Bed-Stuy on the night of Oct. 7. They snatched a necklace from her neck and took off on the moped, police said.
A 47-year-old woman also suffered minor injuries during a robbery near Evergreen Park in Glendale on the morning of Oct. 27. The men tried to snatch her bag, but she fought back and was injured before they fled emptyhanded, according to cops.
A 68-year-old woman was also injured on Avenue Z in Sheepshead Bay on the afternoon of Nov. 4, when one of the men got off the moped, walked up to her and snatched a chain right off her neck, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS