By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Police released surveillance footage of a man the NYPD believes has held up seven people outside subway stations in the last two months.
The suspect, shown in the film released Wednesday wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and red-hooded sweatshirt, is described by police as being between 18 and 22-years-old between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5, weighing 130 to 150 pounds.
In all of the robberies, the suspect allegedly chatted up his victims, followed them out onto the street then demanded they hand over their electronics, said police.
The first reported robbery occurred Feb. 23 in Harlem on West 127th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. The suspect followed an 18-year-old boy and stole his cell phone after holding him up at knifepoint, police said.
He targeted another boy, a 15-year-old, on March 17 on the Upper West Side at Amsterdam Avenue, at West 64th Street, and again made off with a cell phone after brandishing a knife, according to the NYPD.
Five days later, the man allegedly used a switchblade to rob another 15-year-old boy of a cell phone at Water Street and Whitehall Street, police said.
On March 24, police said the suspect struck again, this time brandishing a handgun, to rob a 17-year-old boy of his iPod on the Upper East Side, outside the subway station at Lexington Avenue and East 86th Street.
Police said a 15-year-old victim handed over his cell phone on Centre Street on March 28 after the suspect demanded that he hand over all electronics, police. He allegedly didn't show a weapon in that incident.
Just a day later, the suspect struck again in the Financial District where the NYPD said he robbed a 16-year-old at gunpoint on Gold Street and Fulton Street.
Another robbery was reported March 30 in the Lower East Side, at Broadway and East Houston Street, where the suspect again used a handgun to rob a 16-year-old boy of his cell phone, police said.
Authorities ask anyone with information on the string of thefts to contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-8477.
