MOTT HAVEN — Police may have caught the person responsible for a string of Beats by Dre headphone thefts from earlier this year.
Officers from the 40th Precinct arrested Jonathan Perez, 18, at 9:35 p.m. Friday at the corner of Willis Avenue and East 146th Street, where they say he stole a pair of Beats headphones from a man at knifepoint.
Perez and a man who has not yet been caught yanked the headphones from off of the victim's head while he was walking to the gym, and Perez then struck him behind the left ear while the other suspect grabbed his cell phone out of his hand, according to court and police documents.
Shamira Plowden, 18, was also arrested in connection with the robbery and charged with criminal possession of a weapon after officers saw a silver gravity knife with an orange handle at her house, which she said belonged to Perez, court documents said.
"We met with the other guy earlier in the day at McDonald's, and we were going to catch someone on the rebound," she said, according to the criminal complaint. "We were going to rob them."
Officers stressed that Perez was the ringleader in the incident and are now looking into whether he is the same person responsible for stealing Beats by Dre headphones from unsuspecting passengers as they waited to board the Bx41 bus earlier this year. Sources said they are hopeful that they have found their culprit.
Perez was arraigned on charges of robbery, assault, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon and was ordered held on $30,000 bail, court documents show. He is due back in court on April 23.
Plowden is due back in court on June 11.
Other recent crimes in the 40th Precinct include:
►A teenager was shot in his left ankle on April 14 around 7 p.m. in front of the Mitchell Community Center at 343 East 137th St. and taken to Lincoln Hospital. Police do not have a description of the suspect but say he did not know the victim.
Check out our blotter map for these and other reported crimes and arrests in the 40th Precinct:
