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Anonymous Tip Leads to Arrest of Meatball Shop Robber, NYPD Says

By Aidan Gardiner | August 14, 2017 3:06pm
 Tony Thomas, right, was arrested in connection with the robbery of a Bedford Avenue Meatball Shop.
Tony Thomas, right, was arrested in connection with the robbery of a Bedford Avenue Meatball Shop.
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DCPI

BROOKLYN — A man was arrested Friday after forcing an employee of the Meatball Shop in Williamsburg into the food cooler at gunpoint before stealing $2,000 in cash from the eatery's safe, police said.

Tony Thomas, 38, and another man put the gun to the neck of the worker, a 30-year-old man, and forced him to open a safe in the shop at 170 Bedford Ave., near North Eighth Street, about 3 a.m. on Aug. 9, police and prosecutors said.

They also snatched a cellphone from the worker's hands, Brooklyn prosecutors said.

The other suspect told the man to put the money into a black bag and that he didn't want to hurt him, prosecutors said.

That suspect then forced the victim into the food cooler before locking him inside and fleeing the eatery, officials said.

Someone identified Thomas to police who then arrested him Friday for robbery, unlawful imprisonment, grand larceny and menacing, officials said.

He was arraigned Saturday and held on $100,000 bond, records show.

The second suspect hadn't been arrested as of Monday, police said.

Thomas has been arrested 16 times since 2001, police said.

He was arrested on March 24, but records for that incident are sealed, police spokesman said.

Thomas was arrested on March 14 for driving around in an uninsured Chevy Impala and using a forged placard to claim he was working as a parole officer, when in fact he wasn't, prosecutors said.

He's due back in court for that arrest on Aug. 17, records show.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).