NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The NYPD is investigating a months-long crime spree in which victims responding to car ads on Facebook Marketplace have been violently robbed by thieves wielding guns and a baseball bat spiked with nails.
At least three suspects are being sought in the string of robberies, which stretch from March to just last week. Seven occurred in the Bronx, mainly on secluded streets, while an eighth was in Queens. At least $27,000 cash has been stolen, as well as a car and cellphones.
In most of the cases, the victims responded to a car ad on Facebook Marketplace posted by “George Smith” or “Akeem Brown,” only to be robbed when they showed up to the meeting, cops said.
While most of the victims were not physically harmed, one was bashed in the head with a baseball bat and another was placed in a chokehold, police said.
In the most recent robbery last Tuesday afternoon, a 28-year-old man looking to buy a car was lured to Dyre Avenue in the Eastchester section of the Bronx, where he was robbed at knifepoint by two people who fled in a gray Mercedes-Benz towards Mount Vernon, according to cops.
A 22-year-old man was also robbed of his cellphone and $10,000 at gunpoint in Eastchester on April 29; a 55-year-old man was carjacked at gunpoint in Flushing on April 25; and two men, ages 29 and 24, were mugged of $4,000 cash at gunpoint on April 18.
A robbery on April 8 turned violent when two men, 55 and 23, looking to purchase a car went to a meetup in Edenwald, where one of them was struck in the head with a metal bat, police said. He was treated at the scene by EMS—after the robbers fled with $10,000.
A 21-year-old man was also placed in a chokehold and robbed of cash and his cellphone in a robbery in Pelham Gardens on March 12. And a 36-year-old man was menaced with a baseball bat stuck with nails as two men robbed him of $3,000 cash on March 10.
Police have also linked the suspects to a stolen car in Unionport on Dec. 29. A 26-year-old woman had left the vehicle running and unattended off the Cross Bronx Expressway, and when she returned it was gone.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.