A 71-year-old store employee was robbed at knifepoint in broad daylight inside a Rockaway Beach cell phone store last week.
Police from the 100th Precinct reported that an unidentified man entered the Total by Verizon store, located at 86-24 Rockaway Beach Blvd., at 2:42 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6 and pulled out a knife.
The perpetrator held the blade to the neck of the senior man and demanded property, police said. The suspect removed $150 in cash from the register and store merchandise valued at $1,615 before running off northbound on Beach 87th Street toward Beach Channel Drive. There were no reported injuries as a result of the incident.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect on Thursday and described him as having a dark complexion and a heavy build. He was last seen wearing a black winter jacket over a blue hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, black sneakers, eyeglasses and a black facemask.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through Feb. 11, the 100th Precinct has reported 3 robberies so far in 2024, 1 fewer than the 4 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 25%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
