UPPER WEST SIDE — Police tracked down a stolen cellphone after a mugger robbed two people at gunpoint inside their building on West 93rd Street, police said.
The thief followed the man and woman, both 31, into the building at 325 W. 93rd St., flashed a gun and demanded they fork over their belongings on Tuesday at about 6:20 p.m., the NYPD said.
The man made off with an iPhone 6S, a Google Nexus cellphone and $88 in cash, police said. He was described as around 40 years old, standing 5-foot-8 and weighing approximately 170 pounds, police said.
Later that night, a man matching the same description was involved in another mugging with an accomplice near West 120th Street and Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights, police said. Police could not provide more information about the incident.
Police were able to track one of the phones stolen in the West 93rd Street mugging to The Bronx after sending a text message that said whoever was using it should call the 24th Precinct.
A man who said he bought the phone on the street contacted the precinct, and police retrieved it from him at the intersection of 166th Street and Third Avenue in the Bronx, the NYPD said. Officers then returned it to its original owner, police said.
Returning a stolen phone "rarely happens," said Deputy Inspector Marlon Larin, commanding officer of the 24th Precinct.
In both muggings, there was surveillance video available that police are using to track down the suspects, he said.
"We have good video of these people," he said. "I’m confident we’ll have an arrest shortly."
