Oct. 27, 2014 By Christian Murray
An 81-year-old Sunnyside resident was punched in the face and then robbed at the Chase bank branch at 46-10 Queen Blvd Sunday morning.
William Eichhorn, who has lived in the Phipps Houses for the past 50 years, had just finished mass at St. Sebastian’s church and walked up to the Queens Blvd branch to get cash for a newspaper and bagel and get pocket money for the week.
While taking out $100 at about 9:30 am, two men allegedly approached him from behind by the ATM machine and demanded money, the police said. He refused and was punched in the face and thrown to the ground. While on the ground, the men took his cash and riffled through his pockets. They fled with his debit card, the police said.
Eichhorn’s granddaughter Katie Flanagan said that a Good Samaritan came to her grandfather’s aid. She said he picked him up off the ground, called the police and escorted him to the 108 Police Precinct in Long Island City. “We don’t know who the Good Samaritan was but we would like to know and to thank him,” she said.
She also said that the 108 treated her grandfather well by taking him to the station, helping him with his cut check—pierced by knuckles—and by dropping him off at his apartment door.
Nevertheless, Flanagan said that her grandfather is now nervous about going out of the house. She is worried that her grandfather is so shaken that it will stunt his independence.
She said she hopes the police and residents will help her nab the perpetrators.
“I am hoping with enough attention we can find the cowards who beat up and robbed my elderly and nearly blind grandfather,” Flanagan said. “He’s 81 and 130 pounds–who could do such a thing such and elderly tiny man?”
