What to Know
- Police say a man in his 40s has robbed people at four businesses in the Kips Bay area of Manhattan over the past week
- In one robbery, the man hit a woman over the head with a stapler; he threatened people with a knife in other robberies
- The man has gotten away with more than $350, according to police
A man has robbed and threatened the lives of people at four Manhattan businesses over the past week, and police are trying to catch him before he strikes again, the NYPD says.
The man hit one woman over the head with a stapler and threatened other people with a knife during the robberies, which have all taken place in or near the Kips Bay neighborhood, according to police.
The NYPD released video and images of a suspect, believed to be in his 40s, on Tuesday. It appears he has only targeted shops with female employees.
The robber’s first known target was Kips Bay Cleaners on East 34th Street at the border of Kips Bay and Murray Hill. The man entered the cleaners shortly after 8 a.m. and demanded money from a 44-year-old employee. When the woman refused, the robber hit her over the head with a stapler and stole $110 from the cash register, police said.
Around the same time the following day, the man robbed Health Source Pharmacy on 34th Street in Kips Bay. He threatened a 36-year-old woman working there with a knife and took an unknown amount of money from the register, according to police.
On Saturday, the man robbed a woman coming out of the Chase Bank on East 23rd Street in Kips Bay. Police said he watched a woman take cash out of an ATM just before 9 a.m. As she was leaving, he pushed her back inside and stole $40 from her.
Local
The robber’s most recent, known heist was Monday morning in Gramercy Park. He went into Nature’s First Pharmacy on First Avenue just before 11 a.m. He told a 21-year-old woman working at the store that he had a knife. When a customer tried to intervene, he threatened to shoot everyone, according to police. The employee handed more than $200 to the robber.
Police didn’t say if anyone was seriously injured in the robberies.
