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Motel Robbers Strike Queens Howard Johnson Twice, Cops Say

By Alan Neuhauser | April 8, 2013 12:39pm

QUEENS — A masked trio that held up three Queens motels this winter struck again last Friday morning, robbing a Howard Johnson that they knocked off at gunpoint in February.

Footage of the motel heist, which occurred about 2:15 a.m. at 153-95 Rockaway Blvd, shows two of the suspects — both clad in ski-masks, hooded sweatshirts, dark pants and sneakers — filling bags with fistfuls of bills as they stand in the motel's lobby. One of the pair clutches a handgun.

Cops say the group is responsible for at least two other armed robberies at Queens motels: a stick-up at La Quinta Inn at 111-26 Van Wyck Blvd., in South Ozone Park, on Feb. 5, and another at a Quality Inn on 94th Avenue, in Jamaica, on Dec. 29.

In each incident, the robbers made off with cash and, at the Quality Inn, an iPad. No one was injured.

Police initially believed that only two people were involved, but they now accuse all three robbers of having had their hands in each of the heists.

Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS. Members of the public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or by texting tips to CRIMES (274637), then entering TIP577.