A 17-year-old girl was walking to the Queens Center Mall earlier this month when a bare-chested stranger snatched a pricey pair of Apple AirPods from her ears in broad daylight.
Police from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst reported that the grand larceny occurred at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6. The youngster was about to enter the mall at 90-15 Queens Blvd. when the perpetrator came up behind her and forcibly removed the AirPods before running off in an unknown direction, police said. A pair of high-end Apple AirPods can cost up to $500.
The girl was not injured as a result of the incident.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect as he passed through the turnstile of a nearby subway station and described him as approximately 19 years old with a medium complexion, a medium build and brown eyes. He wore a black T-shirt around his neck, black shorts, black sneakers with black ankle-high socks, a black knit cap and a multi-colored backpack with cartoon cats affixed beneath a letter Z in black.
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 9, the 110th Precinct has reported 467 grand larcenies so far in 2024, 51 more than the 416 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 12.3%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
