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Serial Cellphone and Wallet Robber Under Arrest, Police Say

By  Trevor Kapp and Gustavo Solis | November 22, 2013 3:43pm 

 Eric Gay, 43, was arrested Thursday on robbery charges.
Eric Gay, 43, was arrested Thursday on robbery charges.
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DNAinfo

EAST VILLAGE — A Brooklyn man accused of claiming to have a gun and holding up three people for their cellphones and wallets was arrested on Thursday, police and the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.

Eric Gay, 43, was charged with three counts of robbery and is also being eyed as a suspect in three additional robberies, which took place during a four-day span from Sunday to Wednesday, a police source said.

In each of the incidents, most of which happened in subway stations, Gay walked up to a victim, said he had a gun with a silencer, demanded their cellphones and wallets and then fled, police said. None of the victims were injured, police said.

Gay allegedly started the spree on Monday, robbing a 15-year-old boy at 2:50 p.m. on the southbound platform of the B/Q train's DeKalb Avenue station, near Flatbush Avenue, according to the Brooklyn DA's criminal complaint.

He struck again less than a day later, sticking up a 24-year-old man on a D train near the Atlantic Avenue station at Pacific Street and Fourth Avenue, the criminal complaint said.

Finally, Gay was charged with a robbery on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. near the F train station at McDonald Avenue and Avenue U, according to the criminal complaint.

Gay is suspected of three additional incidents that follow a similar pattern, a source said. 

The first took place Sunday about 10 p.m. at 39 E. 1st Street, when a 19-year-old man was robbed, police said.

Almost six hours later, a 30-year-old man was robbed on the Brooklyn-bound F-train platform at Second Avenue and East Houston Street, police said.

Finally, on Tuesday, a 20-year-old man was robbed at the West Fourth Street stop on a Brooklyn-bound F train about 12:25 p.m, the NYPD said.

Information about Gay's lawyer was not immediately available. He was scheduled to appear in court on Friday.