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Man Who Tried to Rob 79-Year-Old in LES to Serve 11 Months: DA

By Allegra Hobbs | August 7, 2017 3:45pm
 Police arrested a man who wore American flag shorts while attempting to rob a 79-year-old man.
Police arrested a man who wore American flag shorts while attempting to rob a 79-year-old man.
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NYPD

LOWER EAST SIDE — A thief who threatened to shoot a 79-year-old man on Pitt Street unless he forked over his cash has been arrested and sentenced to 11 months at a Rikers Island jail, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Adam Maldonado, 37, was clad in American flag shorts when he approached the elderly victim near Delancey Street the morning of July 26 and demanded he give him money, prosecutors said.

"I know you have money," he said, according to a criminal complaint. "I have a gun. Give me what you have or I'll shoot you. I'm not kidding. Give me everything you have."

Maldonado ultimately made off empty-handed, but shortly after the incident the victim's child snapped photos of him, the complaint states.

When Maldonado was approached the next day by a police officer who recognized him as a suspect, the officer searched his backpack and discovered the star-spangled shorts, prosecutors said.

Maldonado then told police he had asked the elderly man nicely for money, and that when the man said he didn't have any he said "thank you" and walked away, according to the complaint.

Maldonado later identified himself in the photos taken by the victim's child, prosecutors said.

Maldonado was arrested and initially charged with attempted robbery in the third degree, a felony, but on Aug. 1 pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted grand larceny in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor, according to the DA's office. He was sentenced to 11 months in jail.

He is being held at a Rikers Island facility and is expected to be released March 8, 2018, Department of Correction records show.

Attorney information was not immediately available.