Police are looking for two people on a motorbike who yanked handbags from a half-dozen women and punched some of them in the face during an 80-minute robbery spree in the Bronx last week, authorities said late Wednesday.
According to the NYPD, all six robberies happened between 1 a.m. and 2:20 a.m. last Wednesday and involved women between the ages of 23 and 35 years old. All but one of the victims was punched in the face prior to having their purses stolen.
They were attacked on six different streets, police say -- Crotona Park, Jessup Avenue, Boston Road, Archer Street, East 175th Street and Robert Avenue by Bruckner Boulevard.
One of the vicious assaults was captured on surveillance video, which showed two men approach a woman about to enter a building. The victim was punched in the face by the attackers, who yanked her bag away so hard she fell to the ground.
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She gave chase briefly, but the moped rider once again hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground, video showed. The rider and accomplice can be seen riding off, with the woman chasing behind.
"I was reaching for my keys to open the door, the moped came up on the sidewalk with the lights off, cut me off from going in to my building," said one of the women who was robbed, who did not wish to be identified. "He asked me to give him my bag, I didn’t hear him so I asked him, 'What?' He punched me in my mouth."
That victim said the thieves returned her purse after realizing there was nothing in it, but she says they stole something much more valuable: She no longer feels safe in her Mount Eden neighborhood.
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"Absolutely not, absolutely not! I have to take my own personal measures for safety," she said, adding that she'd confident the suspects will be caught.
Police released surveillance footage of the suspects (above) from the sixth robbery. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
