Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood are looking for an armed robbery crew that stole a pricey Swiss luxury wristwatch from a home on a residential street in the Liberty Park section of Glendale and shot a man before they fled the scene in a minivan last week.
The heist occurred on the night of Wednesday, Aug. 7, when four suspects entered a house in the vicinity of 65th St. at 11:45 p.m. and began removing items from the house, including a pricey Audemars Piguet wristwatch, according to an NYPD spokesman.
Known as an AP watch, the Swiss timepieces can be more valuable than Rolex watches, and normally cost between $30,000 and $60,000. The NYPD spokesman could not say what other items were taken or why a 24-year-old man was shot at the home, saying that is part of an ongoing investigation.
One or more of the suspects pulled out handguns and fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him once in the head before they ran from the home and piled into a waiting black minivan with dark tinted windows that was last seen heading southbound on Cypress Hills Street toward Highland Park.
EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the victim to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the four masked suspects and their getaway vehicle on Monday night. One of the perps is described as having a heavy build and wore a distinctive black hooded sweatshirt with pink roses across the back over a black sweatshirt with black and white sneakers. A second suspect had a heavy build, around 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 220 pounds, who wore a black facemask, black jacket, black sweatpants and black sneakers. A third man had a slim build, approximately 6 feet tall, who also wore a black facemask and a black hooded sweatshirt with a yellow Michael Jordan Nike logo. The fourth perp had a heavy build and was last seen wearing a black hoodie with gray shorts and black sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation 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 Aug. 11, the 104th Precinct has reported 130 robberies so far in 2024, three fewer than the 133 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 2.3%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Shooting incidents are also down in the precinct with two reported so far this year, one fewer than the three reported at the same point in 2023, a decrease of 33.3%, according to CompStat.
