PARK SLOPE — Masked men robbed two teenage boys at gunpoint Thursday night near the Pavilion Theater on 14th Street and police are also investigating another mugging that happened just blocks away around the same time, the NYPD said.
The boys, 15 and 16, were walking toward the movie theater near Prospect Park West when they spotted a man in front of them wearing a ski mask and talking on the phone, the 16-year-old victim's mother told DNAinfo New York on Monday.
The man seemed suspicious, so the boys tried to cross 14th Street to get away from him, the mom said. As they were trying to move away from the masked man, another man approached them from behind and put the 16-year-old boy in a headlock, the mom said.
The mugger pushed what felt like a gun into the teen's back and ordered him to "get down" and hand over his valuables, the teen's mom said. The teen got on his knees and gave the men his cell phone. Meanwhile the thief's accomplice searched the 15-year-old's backpack and pulled out his phone.
The masked men then ran away toward Eighth Avenue. The thieves appeared to be armed with a black gun that had some metal on it, the 16-year-old's mom said.
The robbery happened at 8:20 p.m., police said. The boys were robbed on the same block as P.S. 107 and near a corner where theatergoers frequently linger.
“He and his friend were in absolute shock and since then he’s been pretty quiet,” the 16-year-old’s mom said. “He says he’s fine, but he’s a teenage boy and they don’t talk a lot. Physically he wasn’t harmed but he was really, really shaken up.”
No arrests had been made as of Monday morning, an NYPD spokeswoman told DNAinfo New York.
Police are also investigating another robbery that happened about 15 minutes later on Ninth Street and Prospect Park West, police said. In that case, two men punched a 32-year-old man in the face at 8:35 p.m. after they demanded his phone and he refused to hand it over.
A toy pistol was recovered later at the scene, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the two incidents were related.
In December an 11-year-old boy in Park Slope was robbed of his iPhone by two men, one of whom put him in a chokehold to force him to reveal the phone's password, according to a police report.
Police frequently warn the public not to walk with their phones out to avoid becoming crime targets, but the 16-year-old's mom said neither boy was carrying a phone in their hands when the robbers struck.
Crime increased slightly in the 78th Precinct in 2015 compared to 2014, with 968 major crimes reported in 2015 compared to 956 in 2014, according to the most recent statistics from the NYPD.
Major crimes include murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, grand larceny and burglary.
There were 98 robberies in 2014 and 122 in 2015 in the 78th Precinct, according to NYPD statistics.
