NYPD Struggling To Deal With Rash Of Sidewalk Cafe Robberies
Few can resist a sidewalk cafe in the summertime — and
they are literally everywhere in New York City. Thieves across the five
boroughs are taking notice, stealing from unsuspecting diners.
So if you planning to dine out, you better beware.
Your phone, your purse and your bag could be gone in a
New York minute, CBS 2’s Derricke Dennis reported.
“People are eating. They’re deep in conversation. You get
up to go to the bathroom…,” added Andrew Taylor of Harlem.
And they literally grab your stuff and go.
“I haven’t thought about it, no. It just never even
occurred to me,” said Laura Berry of Connecticut.
Well, it should be on all consumers’ minds. The NYPD is
seeing an uptick in thieves snatching valuables off sidewalk cafe tables,
running off before patrons can even react.
And it’s not just happening outside. CBS 2’s Dennis saw
surveillance video of two suspects grabbing a man’s cell phone off a counter
and taking off. The victim later posting a screenshot of them on Twitter,
saying “wanted — these two stole my iphone in hells kitchen. help me find
them!”
“By the time I realized the phone was missing out of my
pocket and I went back, it was already gone,” Miles Doran said.
Police are seeing these thefts all over the city. Chris
Pollok’s Bier International restaurant at Eighth Avenue and 113th Street was
also hit.
“Some guy was going up and down checking it out, and came
back and snatched the phone and ran off,” Pollok said.
It’s happened twice this month at the popular Red Rooster
restaurant in Harlem, and also at a cafe on Seventh Avenue in the West Village.
The wait staff is actually warning customers that anything is up for grabs.
“Yeah, or sometimes wallets, or sometimes checkbooks with
the cash inside, whatever they see,” server Dara Karac said.
Counting sidewalk cafe thefts is tough for the NYPD. It
doesn’t specifically track the crime, and restaurant surveillance cameras are
mostly trained on the door, and not the tables, so catching a thief might be up
to the victim, CBS 2’s Dennis reported.
“I’d go after him, for sure, absolutely. Show ‘em whose
boss,” said James Dowell of Hoboken, N.J.
Police don’t recommend that. They said to safeguard your
items under the table.
Or dine at your own risk.
One deterrent is iPhone users are using various apps to
track their stolen phones, and the thieves who took them.
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