Police have arrested the convict they allege has been targeting elderly New Yorkers in more than a half-dozen muggings over the last several weeks.
Clarence Jones, 66, was arrested Monday morning on Eighth Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, after someone called in a tip, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
When he was arrested, Jones was wearing all black with a hood covering his head, but Boyce said they were able to identify the 66-year-old by his gray hair.
"It identified him immediately, the fact that he had gray hair under the hoodie, and that's how they got him," said Boyce.
Authorities say Jones is the mugger who has attacked and robbed eight people, including six victims in their 70s and 80s. The robberies, in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, date back to 2015.
Jones has 19 prior arrests on charges including assault, burglary and robbery, had been released from prison in May 2014.
He was on parole when he attacked and robbed a 76-year-old woman in the Bronx, telling the victim "shut up or I'll kill you." He'd been on the lam since.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said he was so pressed to find the man that he contributed $1,000 of his own money to the Crime Stoppers reward for an arrest in the violent muggings.
Jones faces multiple charges of robbery, assault and criminal possession of a loaded firearm.
Attorney information for the man weren't immediately available. When asked if he was responsible for the robberies as he was led from a police station Monday night, he only said "no."
One of his alleged victims told NBC 4 New York she would tell Jones, "I just hope they put you away for a long, long time. You can't go around and do stuff like that."
