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Robber Pours Mystery Liquid on Counter, Threatens to Light It: Police

The man is also wanted in connection with robberies at a Metro PCS and a Subway restaurant, according to police

What to Know

  • A would-be robber poured a mystery liquid onto a Western Union counter and threatened to set it on fire if the teller didn’t hand over cash
  • Police said they weren't sure what the liquid was. The incident was caught on surveillance video
  • The man is also wanted in connection with robberies at a Metro PCS and a Subway restaurant, according to police

A would-be robber poured a mystery liquid onto a Western Union counter in Queens and threatened to set it on fire if the teller didn’t hand over cash, police say.

The man went into a Western Union on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside at around 7:45 p.m. on Friday, approached the security window, poured an unidentified liquid on the counter and held a lighter up to it, video from inside the bank shows.

The man then told the 24-year-old woman working at the window he’d set the establishment on fire if she didn’t give him money, the NYPD said.

The woman walked away from the window, at which point the man splashed the liquid on a door next to the window before fleeing, police said.

Police said they weren’t sure what the liquid was.

The man is also wanted in connection with two other robberies, according to police.

On Monday, he went into a Metro PCS in Jackson Heights around 11:30 a.m., flashed a knife at a 30-year-old employee and demanded cash, police said.

He took $210 from the register and $200 from the employee’s purse before fleeing the business.

Later that day, around 9:20 p.m., the man went into a Subway restaurant in Flushing and passed a note that said he had a bomb and a gun to an employee, the NYPD said.

The employee handed the man $215, and the man left the restaurant.

The man stands between 5-foot-1 and 5-foot-4 and was wearing a black and red baseball cap, a black hooded sweater with a white stripe on its left arm, a blue vest, black pants and brown boots during the attempted bank robbery, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

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