A rail-thin thug with a penchant for robbing jewelry from little old ladies has set his sights on the neighborhood’s western end, where police say he’s robbed six seniors.
The rampage of the six-foot tall hooligan, who is slowly making a career out of ripping off old ladies, includes:
• Taking an 84-year-old woman’s bags and swiping a necklace from a 74-year-old woman during two separate confrontations inside the same W. 25th Street building between Mermaid and Surf avenues on July 23 and Aug. 24.
• Ripping a necklace off a 74-year-old woman inside a W. 23rd Street home between Neptune and Mermaid avenues on Aug. 13.
• Forcing a 73-year-old woman to hand over her gold chain during a confrontation inside a W. 23rd Street apartment building on Aug. 17.
• Removing two necklaces from two seniors, ages 70 and 75, during two separate robberies inside a W. 30th Street building between Mermaid and Surf avenues. The robberies took place on Aug. 21, then six days later on Aug. 27.
Cops are circulating a surveillance photo of the thief in the hopes of grabbing him.
His string of robberies helped fuel a summer of wildly rampant crime wave in Coney Island which spanned from the neighborhood’s western end all the way to its beloved amusement area.
The crime wave has taken its toll: according to NYPD statistics, robberies in the 60th Precinct are up by nearly 18 percent while burglaries are up by 25 percent.
Overall crime is up by 13 percent, according to recent NYPD CompStat figures.
Crime conditions were so dire that residents asked the Guardian Angels to augment cop patrols in the area, officials said.
Anyone with information regarding Coney Island’s chain ripper is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
