A roving gang of pickpocketers has been targeting employees at restaurants in Manhattan, with many workers discovering their cash and wallets missing at the end of their shifts, police say.
Police say a group of six young men has been going to restaurants and businesses uptown -- mostly on the Upper East Side -- to quietly steal from employees.
They often ask to use the bathroom and create some sort of distraction as someone takes purses or wallets from behind the counter or from an employee room, police say.
So far, from March through July, seven thefts or theft attempts have been pinned to the group:
- On March 30 at Shalel Lounge at 658 West 70th St. (In this case, when the 36-year-old victim realized his wallet was missing, he got an alert on his phone about an unauthorized transaction at a nearby McDonald's; when the victim got there, he saw the suspect using his debit card, but the suspect ran away.)
- On May 30 at Daisy Diner inside 1641 Second Ave.
- On May 30 at San Matteo Pizza inside 1559 Second Ave.
- On June 20 at City Brows inside 2265 Broadway
- On July 23 at Silver Star Diner inside 1238 Second Ave.
- On July 23 at Le Botaniste inside 833 Lexington Ave.
- On July 25 at The Seamstress inside 339 East 75th St.
Alex Webber, a chef at Seamstress, says two of the six teens were arrested at the restaurant, where the group stole someone's backpack.
"They wanted to use the bathroom, and we let them use the bathroom, it's fine," he said. "You don't realize until something is going wrong that a crime is in progress."
"They ran through the kitchen in the middle of service," Webber said. "I thought it was customers at first, I said we were closed. The access was closed, and they bolted past and I realized something must be up."
He said police were close by and "we thought it was a bar fight and we tried to break it up. One of the guys attempted to run through the front door. The police followed and suddenly we had 15 police officers outside."
Local
Police arrested 19-year-old Charles Ross and 21-year-old Jermaine Drummond, both of Brooklyn. It's not clear if they have attorneys.
Police are still looking for four more suspects. Anyone with information on the men pictured is asked to call Crime Stoppers at nypdcrimestoppers.com.
