NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The NYPD is investigating another drug-laced robbery in connection with a criminal scheme that largely targets men visiting gay clubs and has resulted in the deaths of at least two men.
The previously undisclosed incident occurred just days before many suspects in the scam were arrested and charged, police told 1010 WINS.
Michael, an openly gay man, is said to be the 18th victim that was targeted in the scheme. The 30-year-old, who requested his last name be disclosed, said he was drugged and robbed of nearly $5,000 after visiting The Eagle NYC, a gay bar in Chelsea, on March 25.
NBC News has reported that at least three similar incidents happened at the bar on West 28th Street near 11th Avenue. The Eagle NYC did not immediately respond to their request for comment.
Police are now investigating the March 25 incident as part of the same "citywide robbery pattern" that resulted in the indictment of the six suspects between March 29 and April 13. Though police sources told NBC News that there have been no charges made specifically in Michael’s case.
Michael told NBC News that he was intoxicated when he and his friends were approached by three men after leaving the bar at 3:45 a.m.
He got into a taxi with the men, according to what he remembered and what he said the police told him after analyzing the bar's surveillance footage. His friends took a different taxi home.
He said he had a vague memory of being in an unknown apartment before regaining consciousness some hours later, without his cellphone. When he awoke, he said, he was being shaken by a woman he didn't know — but who knew his name — on the side of an East Harlem street, around 80 blocks north of the bar.
"She was not trying to help, the way she was speaking to me," Michael said. "She was annoyed and trying to get rid of me."
Michael said that he got into a cab and returned to Brooklyn. He awoke later that day to find that his bank accounts had been emptied except for about $40, which he used to pay for the cab ride home.
He later told police he believed the three men drugged him, stole his phone and then used its facial recognition technology to unlock it and gain access to his bank accounts.
An NYPD spokesperson told NBC News that a 30-year-old man filed a police report after "$5,000 worth of unauthorized charges were made from his checking and savings account after spending time with three unknown males."
A grand jury indictment unsealed last month names five men in connection to the drugging deaths of Julio Ramirez, 25, and John Umberger, 33, as part of a criminal operation to steal money. In April, a sixth person was indicted.
The medical examiner’s office last month ruled both deaths were the result of "drug-facilitated thefts" and homicides. Lab tests showed both men had fentanyl, cocaine and lidocaine, among other substances, in their systems when they died.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office said the group targeted men at bars and clubs — befriending them and then plying them with potent and dangerous drugs. When their victims became incapacitated, they were robbed of their wallets and cellphones, which were used to make purchases and digitally siphon money from their bank accounts.
Authorities previously said that, while the majority of the victims in the operation were gay men, they weren't targeted because of their sexual orientation. A separate group is accused of conducting similar crimes against 26 people, the majority of whom were not LGBTQ.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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