UPPER WEST SIDE — A man police believe tried to rob a cellphone store was arrested carrying a BB gun after a high-ranking officer chased him down on foot, the NYPD said.
A pair of men wearing hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps entered the Boost Mobile store at 1003 Columbus Ave., at West 109th Street, at 10:45 p.m. on Sept. 19 and flashed a gun, said Deputy Inspector Marlon Larin.
They left the shop empty-handed, with one of the suspects fleeing on foot and the other driving a van, Larin said.
A few minutes later, the deputy inspector saw a 2016 white ford U-Haul, matching the description of the getaway vehicle that a caller had given police, Larin said.
The van, which did not have its headlights on, was headed along West 110th Street approaching Broadway when Larin, the top officer at the NYPD's 24th Precinct, began following it in his squad car. The driver then turned left and pulled over on Broadway at West 109th Street, Larin said.
When Larin turned on his police lights, the driver, Robert Spencer, 43, got out of the van and began running away. The deputy inspector chased him on foot and apprehended him, he said.
Spencer, a Bronx resident, resisted arrest, flailing, kicking and twisting, a criminal complaint said.
"It could have gone very badly," Larin noted of the chase.
When police searched the van, they found a black Walther BB gun, which looks remarkably like a real gun, Larin said.
"Anyone who carries an imitation pistol, they still get charged as though they're holding an actual firearm," the deputy inspector said. "You can still do a lot of damage [with a fake gun]: incite fear and alarm in people."
After running a background check, police discovered that Spencer was driving with a suspended license. They also found forged driver's licenses from Florida and New Jersey in the man's wallet, the complaint said.
Police also discovered that the U-Haul van was reported stolen from within the 49th Precinct in the Bronx on Sept. 7.
Spencer was charged with possession of an imitation pistol, possessing or selling air pistols and rifles, two counts of possession of a forged driver's license, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, unauthorized use of a vehicle and resisting arrest, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said.
His lawyer did not immediately respond to request for comment Thursday. The Boost Mobile store could not immediately be reached by phone.
Spencer is being held on a $25,000 bail, the DA said. He is currently being held at the Manhattan Detention Complex, NYC Department of Corrections records show.
He has not been charged for the attempted cellphone store robbery.
