Police are looking for two men who allegedly stole boxes of breast pumps from a midtown couple that needed them to feed their premature newborn twins, authorities and the couple said.
The men walked into the lobby of a West 46th Street building Monday morning and took two Fed-Ex packages containing Medela breast pumps from the mailbox area, police said.
Patrick Foley said his wife delivered prematurely at 30 weeks after 63 hours of labor to baby boy Declan and baby girl Deirdre, each weighing under 3 pounds. The twins are still in the hospital because of their extreme prematurity, Foley said, so his wife needs to pump to provide them milk.
The couple had FedEx tracking information for the breast pumps they had ordered so knew the items should have been there when they returned from the hospital, he said. The packages weren't there.
Foley checked in with the superintendent of his building and viewed surveillance footage that showed two men take the packages and leave the building; one man appeared to look right at a security camera before grabbing the parcel and heading out the door.
"Since my wife needs to pump every three hours, I had to immediately stop what I was doing to run out and buy her an emergency replacement pump, a $400 out-of-pocket expense," Foley said, accusing the suspects of "basically stealing from premature babies."
"The breast pump was not a discretionary purchase; it was a required product to keep our babies alive," Foley said.
Local
The suspects are wanted for petit larceny. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
