By Nathan Duke
Police have arrested a 16-year-old girl and were searching for a male accomplice for their suspected involvement in a series of incidents during which deliverymen were called to Woodside Houses and then robbed, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney said.
Police were also investigating a series of break-ins at numerous locations in Maspeth and Ridgewood during the past two months.
Carina Montes Deoca, who lives at Woodside Houses, has been charged with three incidents of robbery and another of attempted robbery, a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown said. She was arrested Sunday.
As many as seven food deliverymen have been lured to the housing development, located along Broadway in Woodside, during different incidents, a police source said. In each case, the victims were attacked and robbed.
City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said police were “devoting extra resources to the case.”
Montes Deoca has allegedly admitted her role in four incidents, during which she is accused of calling Chinese or Mexican restaurants and luring deliverymen to Woodside Houses, where a man who has yet to be arrested robbed them, the DA’s spokeswoman said.
During one incident Friday, the defendant allegedly called in an order for Chinese food. The deliveryman arrived on the fifth floor of a Woodside Houses building, where he was struck over the head with a hammer by the male accomplice, the spokeswoman said. The suspect reached into the deliveryman’s pocket and took $250. He then grabbed the victim’s cell phone and fled, she said.
The deliveryman was treated at a Queens hospital for swelling, bruising and a concussion, the spokeswoman said.
On that same day, another Chinese food deliveryman was called to the building, where a man wearing a white bandana approached him wielding a knife, the DA spokeswoman said. The suspect pushed the victim’s face back and then fled the scene.
During two other incidents, which took place June 22 and June 25, deliverymen were called to the building and robbed by a man with a white bandana, the DA’s spokeswoman said.
In the June 22 incident, the suspect took $300 and the victim’s cell phone, while the robber stole $200 on June 25.
The NYPD was also searching for a burglar who has struck several times in Ridgewood and Maspeth this summer.
In each case, the suspect broke through the windows of businesses, removed money and fled the location.
The burglar is a black man between the age of 26 and 32, police said.
The first incident took place June 16 at a Mexican restaurant on Grand Avenue. The following day, the burglar struck twice — first at a home along Metropolitan Avenue and second at a Fresh Pond Road house.
On June 20, the suspect broke into a bar and grill along Myrtle Avenue and then later a Carvel ice cream store on Metropolitan Avenue.
He burgled a store on 72nd Avenue June 29, police said.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
