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Bandit Robs 3 Manhattan Stores and One ATM User in a Week, Police Say

By Noah Hurowitz | October 26, 2016 1:41pm
 This man has held up two pharmacies, a laundromat, and a woman exiting an ATM since Oct. 19, police said.
This man has held up two pharmacies, a laundromat, and a woman exiting an ATM since Oct. 19, police said.
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NYPD

MURRAY HILL — A bandit went on a robbery spree in Murray Hill and Gramercy, hitting four different targets in the past week, all in the morning hours, according to police.

The robber, who police say might be homeless, has stolen hundreds of dollars from two pharmacies, a laundromat, and a woman at an ATM since Oct. 19, police said.

Police said they were scouring the area for the suspect, including searching nearby shelters in case the robber is staying in the neighborhood.

“Each officer in Manhattan South has that picture,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, “You can imagine the effort underway now to find this individual. You’ll see a deluge of police officers now searching for this male.”

Boyce, who pointed out that all of the robberies occurred in the morning, including an additional incident on Wednesday that he did not describe in further detail but said could be related.

The robbery spree began just after 8 a.m. on Oct. 19, when the suspect walked into a laundromat at 231 E. 34th St. between Second Avenue and Tunnel Entrance Street and demanded money from a 44-year-old woman working there, according to a police report.

When the woman refused, he hit her on the head with a stapler and swiped $110 from the cash register, police said.

He popped up the next day just a block away. He walked into a pharmacy at 120 E. 34th St. between Lexington and Park avenues at about 8:20 a.m., flashed a knife at a 36-year-old employee, and demanded cash, police said. This time the employee complied, opening the cash register and forking over an unspecified amount of cash, police said.

Two days later on Oct. 22, the robber held up a woman at a Chase Bank ATM on East 23rd Street between First and Second avenues just before 9 a.m., police said. As the 25-year-old victim was exiting the ATM, the robber forced her back in at knifepoint and stole $40 from her, according to a police report.

The next day, just before 11 a.m. on Oct. 24, the thief entered a pharmacy at 313 First Ave. at East 18th Street and told a 21-year-old employee that he had a knife, police said.

When a customer approached the robber and the employee, the man told both victims that he would shoot everyone in the pharmacy if the woman didn't open the cash register, police said. The employee complied, and the man made off with $200 in cash, according to a police report.

The man appeared to be in his 40s, stood about 5-feet-8-inches tall, and was last seen wearing a dark, long-sleeved plaid shirt and a red hat, police said.

Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit tips on the website.