Police from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill are looking for a scooter-riding armed robber and his accomplice who allegedly held up a 25-year-old man at gunpoint in broad daylight at a Woodhaven playground late last month.
The incident occurred just before noon on Wednesday, Sept. 25, when the two strangers rode a two-wheeled scooter onto the basketball court inside London Planetree Playground on Atlantic Avenue and approached the victim. One of the perpetrators pulled out a firearm and forcibly removed two gold chains from the victim’s neck and $100 in cash, police said. The bandits rode off northbound on 89th Street toward Jamaica Avenue. The victim was not injured during the encounter.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the two robbers and described them as having medium complexions in their late teens or early 20s. The scooter operator had a thin beard and mustache and wore a gray hooded sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and black sneakers. The passenger wore a white facemask, a red hoodie, gray Nike sweatpants, and black and red sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding this robbery 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 Oct. 6, the 102nd Precinct has reported 137 robberies so far in 2024, four fewer than the 141 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 2.8%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
