Police are on the hunt for a brazen thief who robbed a 5-year-old girl, then punched her mother in the head on an East Harlem sidewalk.
Teodula Sanchez-Cristino and her three children went to a jewelry store between East 116th and East 117th Streets last Sunday around 12:15 p.m., where she purchased yellow mount earrings for $70, police said. As the four of them exited the store, she allowed her daughter to hold the shopping bag containig the earrings.
After stopping for food at a street vendor on Third Avenue, the family continued walking and were suddenly ambushed by the suspect.
Authorities say that's when he snatched the bag from the little girl's hand and took off. Sanchez-Cristino chased after him, grabbing him by the coat before she demanded he return the bag.
"It's mine," he told her before he allegedly punched the mother of three on the right side of her head and fled the scene.
Sanchez-Cristino went back to the area where she was robbed and called 911. Despite redness in her neck area, she refused medical attention at the scene, police said.
No arrests have been made.
