Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood are looking for a suspect who punched out a 47-year-old man, threatened to shoot him and stole his scooter in Middle Village more than a week ago.
The incident occurred near the Wendy’s restaurant at 61-11 Fresh Pond Rd. at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 11, when the stranger approached the victim and took his two-wheeled scooter. When the man tried to take his bike back, the assailant punched him and acted like he had a firearm, then fled on the scooter westbound on Eliot Avenue toward Metropolitan Avenue. The victim sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention at the crime scene.
The NYPD released surveillance video of the suspect as he walked along Fresh Pond Road. He wore a black sweatsuit, white sneakers, a black baseball cap and a black backpack with white stripes on the shoulder straps. At one point in the video, the perp appears to be escorted away from the location by two workers who were not involved in the robbery, according to an NYPD spokeswoman, who added that there are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing. A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.
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 16, the 104th Precinct has reported 99 robberies so far in 2024, one more than the 98 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 1%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Assaults are on the rise in the precinct with 141 reported so far this year, a dozen more than the 130 reported at the same point in 2023, an increase of 9.2%, according to CompStat.
