A 41-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint of an enormous amount of cash by two men in front of the New York LaGuardia Airport hotel located at 102-05 Ditmars Boulevard in East Elmhurst on Thursday evening.
The gunmen were known to the victim who double-crossed him near the ballroom entrance as they were picking him up just after 6 p.m. to take the out-of-towner to a high-stakes poker game at an unknown location, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
The gunmen threatened the victim and demanded his bag, which contained $250,000 cash, before driving away from the crime scene in a gray sedan in an unknown direction, the source said.
Detectives from the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights were collecting evidence at the crime scene late into Thursday evening. The victim was not injured during the armed robbery, police said, adding that there are no arrests as of midday Friday, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information regarding 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 June 2, the 115th Precinct has reported 157 robberies so far in 2024, 40 more than the 117 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 34.2%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
