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53-Year-Old Man ‘Sucker Pushed’ in Afternoon Robbery on 88th Street And Broadway

February 10, 2020 | 1:46 PM - Updated on June 5, 2022 | 11:32 PM
in CRIME, NEWS
60

By Carol Tannenhauser

On Sunday, February 2nd, at 3:35 p.m., a 53-year-old man walking south on Broadway at 88th Street was pushed from behind by a man in his 20s who took his cellphone and fled southbound on Broadway, according to an NYPD spokesman. “The victim fell to the pavement, suffering a cut to his nose. He walked himself to a nearby urgent care center. The perpetrator was dressed all in black, wearing a red cap on his head.”

“I was there when it happened,” emailed Christine, one of the people who tipped us off to the incident. “The perpetrator ran past me and the man who was robbed fell face first on the sidewalk busting open his nose and chipping one of his front teeth. [The police] spoke to him when he was at City MD urgent care on 88th Street.”

No arrest has been made at this time.

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Jack
Jack
3 years ago

This is getting ridiculous. It is just unacceptable to have robberies in broad daylight on busy streets in “safe” areas. What is going on??

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Fed Up
Fed Up
3 years ago
Reply to  Jack

Wildly progressive policies that blunt the ability of the police to do their job.

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Reply
Lisa
Lisa
3 years ago
Reply to  Jack

Perp knows that even if he gets caught, he’ll be out in no time under the new bail laws.

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
3 years ago
Reply to  Jack

The word is out among criminals, our area is “easy pickens”, with sparse police presence, plenty of subway exits to safety, and extremely low chances of being apprehended. This city is being destroyed by our mayor and his policies.

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dc
dc
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

I am starting to feel like “easy pickens.” At some point, the negatives of living here will surely outweigh the positives for many, including me.

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Richard
Richard
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

“Being destroyed by our mayor and his policies”!? I like our mayor. Of course, I still remember crooked Rudy and his crooked police commissioner, so to me, most any other mayor seems good.

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
3 years ago
Reply to  Richard

Can someone remind Richard how Rudy completely turned this city around with the elimination of squeegee guys (who are back!), and the revitalization of Times Square? Which literally brought hundreds of millions of dollars into this city by tourists once word got out that the dangerous city of old is now quite safe? Which in turn, made Broadway theater shows boom with lines around the block? The candidate for mayor who says he or she will tackle crime, I am voting for, period.

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

@Christian, from Wikipedia: “Following up from an initiative started with the Walt Disney Company by the Dinkins administration, and preceded by planning and eminent domain seizures that went back to the Koch administration, under Giuliani the Times Square redevelopment project saw Times Square transformed from a center for small privately owned businesses such as tourist attractions, game parlors, and peep shows, to a district where media outlets and studios, theaters, financial companies, and restaurants predominate, including MTV Studios, an ESPN Zone, and (formerly) a large Virgin Megastore and theater.” — Dinkins allowed a riot to happen.

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Christian
Christian
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

Koch and Dinkins revitalized Times Square, it just didn’t come to fruition until Rudy was in office so he nabbed the credit. Just as our current president claims credit for the economic recovery.

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Rachel
Rachel
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

Couldn’t agree more. But how the hell are we going to take back our city?!

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Stuart
Stuart
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

The phrase is actually “easy pickings”.

Easy Pickens was an actor and the brother of Slim Pickens, an actor that usually played cowboy roles.

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Ish Kabibble
Ish Kabibble
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

Document that.

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Billy Amato
Billy Amato
3 years ago

Maybe people will feel more vigilant when walking down the street blind to others on the sidewalk after they read this, maybe they will watch for the walk????

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Reply
Wally
Wally
3 years ago
Reply to  Billy Amato

Can you re-post your comment in coherent English, please?

If you referring to distracted pedestrians, that is not a factor when someone is assaulted from behind in broad daylight.

Please get a clue. Thank you.

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Tanya
Tanya
3 years ago
Reply to  Wally

I will take kindness and respectful communication any day over “coherence”. Please be more thoughtful with your comments in the future and keep them to yourself, perhaps.

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
3 years ago
Reply to  Tanya

You do realize we are discussing a violent crime that occurred in broad daylight where we live and the victim could easily have died? Passions are high because this is our lives we’re talking about, that explains the lack of “kindness” regarding this frightening topic. People are scared.

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UWSmom
UWSmom
3 years ago
Reply to  Wally

I agree with Wally that one cannot be expected to have eyes in the back of one’s head. But, to Billy’s point, the chance of robbery surely increases with the increase in value on display. A phone that is not out/visible is less likely to be taken. Unfortunately we have the unfortunate intersection of criminals emboldened by a justice system tilting to their favor, and citizenry walking around while commonly flashing $1000+ phones. Frankly I am surprised this does not happen more often.

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janis
janis
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSmom

So, if I understand what UWSmom is saying, the victim was asking for it because he may have been looking down at his expensive, $1000 cellphone? Wow, does that ring a bell regarding another kind of crime. “Well, judge, if she hadn’t been wearing that short skirt…”

Of course the odds are greater if the mugger sees something expensive that he wants. But the big problem is, he knows he’s not going to get caught due to the lack of police presence. And even if he is, the new bail laws will have him out in 15 minutes with a desk appearance ticket which he’ll throw in the trash.

I agree with UWSHebrew. We have become a lawless city and the Mayor would prefer to nap his way into his final year rather than do the right thing by the law abiding citizens of this city.

Then, whoever he deems the candidate to carry his torch into the term after that will do just that. And UWSers just keep voting for anyone with a D after his/her name.

“There Are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See”

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Josh
Josh
3 years ago
Reply to  UWSmom

I’d be willing to bet the reason he was suckerpunched was that he was walking along staring down at his phone. Had he been otherwise just walking, the perpetrator would have just chosen someone else.

Before people complain about how crime is now rampant and it is the fault of the mayor, or any other politician, people have to realize that any crook would be tempted by such low hanging fruit. We might be the safest big city in the country, but this is still a city. This is Gotham, not Mayberry.

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Marilyn
Marilyn
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Yes. Perhaps income inequality is the problem, duh!

I was a child of the 70s, early 80s and I HATE the Disney Land Times Square.

There was an HBO series that showed Koch, another F-the-poor mayor, was the one who began the illegal Times Square evictions.

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Rob G.
Rob G.
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Blame the victim much? I guess that girl in the short skirt is just asking to get raped, right? You have a pretty low bar if you feel that we don’t have the right to walk down the street and look at our iPhone without inviting a mugging.

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balebusta
balebusta
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Josh, what a charming idiot you are. Are you suggesting that, much like rape victims, this person had it coming because of their own behavior???? That is the false equivalence you are drawing here. No matter what anyone is doing or not doing, wearing or not wearing, holding or not holding, NO ONE has the right to assault or rob another person. Sure, it makes sense to be street smart, but you are a hair’s breadth away from blaming this innocent person…it’s his fault he has a cell phone and was using it? WRONG. It is the fault of the criminal who chose to assault and rob an innocent person.

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Rachel
Rachel
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Josh. Your comment infuriates me. Clearly you did not live in the city during Dinkin’s (our mayor’s mentor!!) reign of terror. Nor were you part of the extremely hard fought cleanup under Bloomberg. NYC is not Mayberry but it sure as hell isn’t Gotham either!! Instead of blaming the victims, learn your NY history, code of human civility and how not to let your envy of the haves blind you to crime and the need for punishment!

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Pedestrian
Pedestrian
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Wow, the victim is at fault. How dare they temp the criminal like that. What twaddle! The mayor and the city council are at fault and so it’s the state legislature.

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Bill Williams
Bill Williams
3 years ago

Is it time to bring back “mugging money” on the UWS?

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LKLA
LKLA
3 years ago

Thank you Mayor DeBlasio.

Once again, thank you for all you have done, and continue to do, for the city.

Be it the dog poop, the homeless, the noise, the construction, the crime, or the deteriorating public transportation system, the scaffolding scam, the overcrowded schools, or garbage on the street, you are really improving the lives of every NYer.

Did I mention the hike in taxes?

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Whadda Mess
Whadda Mess
3 years ago
Reply to  LKLA

Perfectly put. He probably hates parked cars, too.

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Reply
Deb
Deb
3 years ago
Reply to  Whadda Mess

Mayor DeBlasio is actually in favor of curbside parking for all

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MattyIce
MattyIce
3 years ago
Reply to  LKLA

Wait, DeBlasio is responsible for dog poop?

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Reply
Cato
Cato
3 years ago
Reply to  MattyIce

DeBlasio is responsible for removing the trash cans from the corners, making it much more cumbersome to dispose properly of dog “poop”.

If the owner has to walk two blocks (fighting a dog who wants to go home, the other way) to find a trash can, maybe the owner will think twice next time about picking it up at all.

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Ish Kabibble
Ish Kabibble
3 years ago
Reply to  MattyIce

Aside from the dog owner, who else would you blame?

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ST
ST
3 years ago

In the olden days we called them muggings.
Targeting older people in a neighborhood of older people. Still no NYPD patrols or resources devoted to the UWS.

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Reply
Josh
Josh
3 years ago
Reply to  ST

Right, if only they had precincts of police officers dedicated to just the Upper West Side. In my imagination, I would give them two of my favorite numbers, like 24 or 20. And their police cars would patrol only in the Upper West Side. But alas, we don’t have any police patrols dedicated to patrolling the UWS.

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steve
steve
3 years ago

“The perpetrator was dressed all in black, wearing a red cap on his head.” LOL.. great description.. journalism is dead…truth is dead..when you hide from the public the truth society is doomed…

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Reply
tailfins
tailfins
3 years ago
Reply to  steve

It’s a direct quote from the NYPD.

Would you prefer the NYPD say, “It was a Jewish-looking man, dressed in all black with a red yarmulke on his head? We’re looking to talk to any Jewish looking male you see.”

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Chris
Chris
3 years ago
Reply to  tailfins

YES!!

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
3 years ago
Reply to  tailfins

YES, I WOULD.

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Reply
Sheldon
Sheldon
3 years ago

“Dressed in all black wearing a red cap on his head” …. Seriously? That’s your description?

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John P
John P
3 years ago

street cam images of perpetrator?

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Llo
Llo
3 years ago

25 years. I’ve never once seen a cop walking on west end Ave.

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Reply
BillyNYC
BillyNYC
3 years ago
Reply to  Llo

I’ve been living here for 52 years and I have never seen a cop walking the streets.
And it sure is not gonna start today. it’s a thing of the past…….Way past.
I’ve never heard of a cop walking the streets other than what i’ve seen in the 1940 old time movies.

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Deb
Deb
3 years ago
Reply to  Llo

West End Ave is not mentioned in this article, as the crime was committed on Broadway.

The only uniforms you will see on West End are either traffic cops giving out tickets, or doormen.

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UWSmom
UWSmom
3 years ago
Reply to  Deb

There are plain clothes cops “patrolling”. If you want to see more uniformed cops with fixed posts on Broadway, call the 20th and 24th precinct and tell them. You can also attend their monthly community meetings and voice your opinions there. The more people that come, the more of a difference it can make. Everyone feels like they can come on to facebook, Twitter, etc and yell how they feel, but it is so unproductive. If you want change, learn who your elected officials are, contact them, and don’t stop letting them know that what is happening now is unacceptable.

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Josh
Josh
3 years ago
Reply to  Llo

These days, they drive. Only cops I ever see walking are transit cops walking from the 1,2,3 line to the B,C.

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Rodger Lodger
Rodger Lodger
3 years ago

I’ve had broken teeth fixed and this poor guy is going to pay way more to the dentist than the value of his cellphone.

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Pedestrian
Pedestrian
3 years ago

Smash and grab assaults are on the rise. A woman has her cell phone snatched out of her hand at 76 and Broadway in the broad day light. Crime is on the rise and DeBlasio is blind to it. It’s time for the City to start protecting law abiding citizens. I’ll be frank no crime that involves person to person interaction is non violent or petty.

When a person fall on a sidewalk it’s just lucky when they don’t hit their head and die. Something has got to be done!

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Ben David
Ben David
3 years ago

Even if the mugger is caught, he will be released without bail to strike again under the new NYS bail “reform” laws. This is a fact — this crime is a “no bail” offense.
Moreover, even if NYPD sees this mysterious mugger with a red cap (sorry — we are not allowed to say if he is white, black, Asian, Amish), they will not stop and question him. Too risky. So, my advice to you, fellow Upper West Siders, is keep voting for Democrats (in local elections) and watch the crime rates skyrocket. And whatever you do, stay off the streets at the very unsafe hour of 3:35 in the afternoon.

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DM
DM
3 years ago

I live in the 60’s on Broadway and come 11pm at night, I hear yelling, screaming, and groups of loud youth. I look at the time and I think what on earth is going on out there. This is on Broadway. The danger out there is palpable to me — I can feel it. There are no consequences and there are no police around. I don’t like the Republicans, but I will be voting for one this time around for mayor of New York. Being liberal and caring doesn’t have to mean not telling the truth and not supporting the laws and protecting people from crime. Also, put cameras EVERYWHERE. I’m getting tired of hearing these stories which are daily. I hate to believe it, but I guess it’s true – the cities run by Democrats are out of control.

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Nevets K
Nevets K
3 years ago
Reply to  DM

Thank you, DM.
I hate the national Republican Party.
But I will also be voting Republican in all NYC elections from now on.
That is the only message our delusional Democratic office holders will hear.

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Karen L. Bruno
Karen L. Bruno
3 years ago
Reply to  DM

FINALLY!

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balebusta
balebusta
3 years ago

I can’t take this anymore…I am at a loss! DeBlasio has ruined this city, everything is completely unsafe. He has alienated the police force and made this city a sanctuary for criminals…no doubt this perp will not be caught, and if he is, will be back out on the street free to continue victimizing others…the ADA doesn’t prosecute anymore…spare me the victim blaming about needing to be more aware of your surroundings etc — yes we should all be aware, AND, we should all have a reasonable expectation of safety! It is unreasonable to live in a society where you need to remain hypervigiliant 24/7 because criminals are free to attack. Walking down the street should not require the hypervigilance of a Navy Seal to maintain bare minimum personal safety.

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Birkenstock
Birkenstock
3 years ago

Stop complaining. You proudly voted—twice!!—for this mayor. Elections have consequences UWS!

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Janice
Janice
3 years ago

Time for more police presence on the UWS.

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Reply
Cato
Cato
3 years ago
Reply to  Janice

“More”?? How about “some”??

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tom burnett
tom burnett
3 years ago

Recent examples of violent crime underline how important it will be to communicate with others and with the NYPD. One way to participate is to attend the monthly Community Council meetings. The 24 Precinct (86th to 110th streets west of Central Park) Council meets on the third Wednesday of each month at the Precinct. The next meeting will be held at 7 pm on February 19. It will be led for the first time by the new Commanding Officer, DI Naoki Yaguchi. We hope to welcome him with a large attendance. I have met with him and he is adamant about working with the community to improve public safety.

Tom Burnett, President of the 24 Precinct Community Council

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NativeNYer
NativeNYer
3 years ago

The combination of people staring at their phones, wearing ear pods, the lack of street cops & ZERO repercussions for criminals are the reasons for crimes like these.

PLEASE put your phone away. While having a phone out doesn’t mean you’re to blame, it does invite trouble, so don’t be an easy target.

Use the SOS feature on your phone, take a photo of a perp if you see someone attacked. And for crying out loud, take the next Mayoral election more seriously.

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Marci Mason
Marci Mason
3 years ago

That happened right on my corner. I can’t remember the last time I saw a cop in the neighborhood; except for two in a patrol car parked in the bus stop in front of Duane Reade right there. I see them a couple of mornings a week as I head to the subway – around 6:45 am. They’re just looking at their phones and drinking coffee.

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MAD
MAD
3 years ago

Don’t know where this is going yet, but here is some news on bail reform-reform: https://nypost.com/2020/02/12/cuomo-state-democrats-secretly-meet-to-fix-controversial-bail-reform-law/
Also — agree with those here who question the “blame the victim” approach. We have a right to safe streets, day and night. I think it is a great idea to attend the Police Precinct meetings — be counted, be vocal, and be helpful. Thanks to those who posted info about meeting dates/times.

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Pam
Pam
3 years ago

If you want to take the city back stop voting for Democrats. They are responsible for ruining all big cities.

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Carol Braverman
Carol Braverman
3 years ago

THAT is my bus stop. What time of day is safe to wait for a bus if 3:35 pm isn’t. As if waiting for a bus is not bad/long enough.

When is the mayoral election? We need a shake the hand of a Police Officer Day!

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