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Being an NYPD officer goes further than just catching bad guys- it’s about helping the victims.
Cops from the 109th Precinct in Flushing reached into their pockets to help out 71-year-old twin sisters who were robbed of their monthly income, the NYPD said on its Facebook page.
The women were on their way home from a bank in Flushing on April 5 when they were followed into an elevator in their apartment building by Salvador Morales, who knocked them to the floor and stole the $1,100 in Social Security aid they just received, the NYPD said.
One of the sisters suffered a fractured bone in her leg, and both were transported to New York Hospital Queens.
After word of the crime spread through the precinct, Officer Anthony Lo Verme and Detective Kevin O’Donnell collected about $500 from their colleagues and donated the money in person to the victims, the police said.
“When we heard that they had just lost their entire monthly income we all knew we had to help,” O’Donnell said.
Morales, a 58-year-old man from Manhattan, was arrested in Brooklyn and has been charged with burglary, robbery and assault. Police were able to identify him from similar burglaries he pulled off in Coney Island in Brooklyn wearing the same “mask-and-hat get-up,” police said.
Morales has at least 11 prior arrests for burglaries dating back to 1989, authorities said.
The cops visited the women, who are still recovering, and handed the money to them at their bedsides.
“Cops in New York City do things like this each and every day,” said Inspector Brian Maguire of the 109th Precinct.”I love the fact that my officers took it upon themselves and they rose to the occasion.”
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