Hooded thieves scaled security glass at a money transfer business in Queens before pistol-whipping an employee and stealing thousands of dollars in cash — one of four robberies police say they’ve connected to the crooks.
Surveillance video shows the men, shrouded by hoods and ski masks, entering Joanie’s Princess Card and Cash Checkers on 148th Street in Jamaica Sunday night. One of the men pulls out a firearm and another, armed with a knife, acts as a lookout. Two of the men dash over the security partition, crashing into the register area and pistol-whipping a woman working behind the counter.
The owner of the business was too afraid to speak on camera, but he says his wife was the one at the register when the robbers busted in just after 8:30 p.m. He says they pistol-whipped her so badly that she needed 10 stitches in her forehead. The thieves made off with $65,000 of the family’s hard-earned cash, according to police.
Eight miles away in Brooklyn, Nigel Lawrence worries his Canarsie tax business on Glenwood Road might be next. Right across the street, the Postal Express money transfer store was robbed on Dec. 29. Police say it was just before 5:30 p.m. when the robbers pointed a gun at an employee’s head and forced him to hand over $14,600.
Closing up shop on Thursday night, Lawrence wonders why police haven’t alerted other business owners on the block to be on the lookout.
“The precinct is two blocks down,” Lawrence. “Foot patrol, give us four cops.”
Police believe the same men are behind two other robberies on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn in recent weeks. The Caribbean Airmail money transfer business was robbed of $3,600 by two armed men on Dec. 23. And on Dec. 17, two armed men robbed the CAM-Caribbean Airmail business of $4,000.
