Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Queens Zoo Workers Robbed of Nearly $5K at Gunpoint, Police Say

By Katie Honan | October 1, 2014 4:14pm
 The suspect took off with $4,800 in cash, according to the NYPD. 
The suspect took off with $4,800 in cash, according to the NYPD. 
View Full Caption
Flickr/Peter Dutton

CORONA — An armed man held up two Queens Zoo employees — pointing a gun at the head of one of the workers — before fleeing with thousands of dollars, according to the NYPD.

The suspect entered the zoo inside Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 4:20 p.m., according to police.

He whipped out a black handgun and told the employees, an 18-year-old man and a 56-year-old man, to give him money, the NYPD said. 

The robber held a gun to the head of one employees while the other placed $4,800 into a bag, according to the NYPD. The suspect fled on foot.

It was not immediately clear where exactly in the zoo the robbery took place.

The Walk in the Park blog, which first reported the robbery, described the suspect as a 5-foot-9 man in his 30s, citing a police report. The NYPD didn't have any further description of the suspect.

A call to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Queens Zoo, was not immediately returned. The Parks Department referred all inquiries to the WCS and the NYPD.

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park — the borough's largest — had the highest crime out of any other park in the city with the exception of Central Park, according to data released from the second quarter of this year.

It's the most recent data available from the NYPD on crime in parks.