You are reading

Rego Park cellphone store robbed at gunpoint, fourth Queens phone store hit in a month

Suspect

Dec. 27, 2016 Staff Report

A Metro PCS store in Rego Park was robbed at gunpoint Christmas Day, making it the fourth cellphone store to be struck by armed bandits in Queens in less than a month, police said.

Police believe the latest incident is part of a pattern where two armed men have entered cellphone stores—in Sunnyside, Corona and Elmhurst—and stolen tens of thousands of dollars worth of iPhones and cash.

In the latest incident, two men entered the Metro PCS store at 97-14 Queens Boulevard with handguns at around noon and forced three male employees, a male customer and a female—who police say was posing as a customer—to the back of the store.

Once in the back, the female suspect placed cell phones inside of a bag as one of the two armed men walked to the front of the store and removed cash from the register.

A fourth man entered the store and removed cell phones from the displays.

The suspect who remained in the back of the store placed his gun down and tied the 56 year-old male customer with duct tape. The three employees (two 18 year-olds and a 21 year-old) then tackled the male individual and subdued him.

The female individual and the two males in the front fled the store into a waiting vehicle. The vehicle drove off eastbound on Queens Boulevard. The suspect who was subdued by the employees managed to flee the store in an unknown direction.

The first suspect is a male, black; last seen wearing a red hooded sweater, a black coat and dark

Suspect

colored pants.

The second individual is a male, black; last seen wearing a dark colored hooded sweater, dark colored pants and yellow boots.

The third individual is a female, black; last seen wearing a pink hat, a black scarf, a black coat and black pants.

The fourth individual is a male, black, with glasses; last seen wearing a dark colored hooded sweater, a dark colored jacket and dark colored pants.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477)

email the author: news@queenspost.com

One Comment

Click for Comments 

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Amazon faces largest U.S. strike as Maspeth teamsters join nationwide picket lines Thursday

Hundreds of warehouse workers and drivers walked off the job and joined the picket line outside the massive DBK4 Amazon fulfillment center in Maspeth on Thursday morning as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) launched the largest strike ever against the $2 trillion corporation in New York City, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco, and Illinois.

Amazon workers at other facilities across the country say they are prepared to join them to protest unfair labor practices after the IBT set a Dec. 15 deadline for Amazon to begin negotiations on a new agreement. The union was ignored.