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Menthol-Loving Robber Holds Up Two Manhattan Delis, Police Say

By Noah Hurowitz | February 3, 2016 11:29am
 Javier Montalvo, 49, robbed this deli at gunpoint on Jan. 26, police said.
Javier Montalvo, 49, robbed this deli at gunpoint on Jan. 26, police said.
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DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

MIDTOWN EAST — A masked robber from The Bronx held up two Manhattan bodegas at gunpoint in January, each time making off with cash and Newport cigarettes, according to a criminal complaint.

Javier Montalvo, 49, hit a deli at West 77th Street and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side on Jan. 11 and showed up again, gun in hand, at a bodega at Second Avenue and 46th Street in Midtown East on Jan. 26, police said.

In the first incident, Montalvo strode into the convenience store at 370 Columbus Ave. at 9:35 p.m., dressed from head to toe in black and wearing a mask. He then flashed a gun and demanded smokes and cash, according to a criminal complaint.

“Do you have a cigarette? Give me all the money in the register,” Montalvo demanded, according to the complaint.

He snatched $800 and a carton of Newports and fled in a light-colored 2008 Infinity Q56 SUV, police said.

Montalvo surfaced again on Jan. 26, just after 2:15 a.m. at Dawa46, a bodega at 857 Second Ave., again dressed in black, wearing a facemask, and toting a handgun, police said.

Montalvo asked the clerk for cigarettes, handed him a bag and demanded “Just empty the register, this isn’t a joke,” and made off in the same SUV with $450 in cash and some cigarettes, according to the criminal complaint.

Police later that morning tracked Montalvo’s car to Fordham in the Bronx, where they found him sitting in the SUV at the corner of Morris Avenue and West 183rd Street just before 5 a.m., and recovered the bag with most of the cash and cigarettes, according to a criminal complaint.

Prosecutors charged Montalvo with two counts of armed robbery. A judge ordered him held on $250,000 bail pending his next court date on Feb. 4, court records show.

A lawyer for Montalvo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Employees of both stores declined to comment.