Police tracked down and arrested a New Jersey man on Sunday for a bungled robbery he allegedly committed thanks to DNA evidence they collected from a coffee cup he’d left behind in the 2006 crime.
Cops say that the suspect, 47, entered the Duane Reade drugstore at the corner of Flatbush and Seventh avenues at around 10:20 am on Nov. 16, 2006, bought a pack of Newports and asked the cashier where to find the Advil.
When he came back to the register, the man allegedly showed off a gun tucked into his waistband and said, “I have a gun, open the register and give me the money.”
The cashier panicked and told him she couldn’t open the register without the keys unless he bought something else, cops said.
The would-be bandit then offered to buy another pack of cigarettes, but said he only had five dollars.
After a little more back and forth, the suspect fled, but left the donut shop coffee cup on the counter.
Cops had arrested a man days after the robbery, but they now believe that he was wrong man.
Detectives say they matched the DNA on the cup to that of the new suspect, whose DNA was on file with law enforcement agencies because of a prior arrest.
