By Carol Tannenhauser
On Tuesday morning, WSR received the following call for help from the NYPD:
The NYPD is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the following individual in connection to a grand larceny within the confines of the 20 Precinct. The following has been reported to police:
On Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at approximately 1845 hours [6:45pm], the individual approached the 90-year-old female victim in front of 20 West 64th Street and removed her purse from her walker. The individual then fled on foot.
The video below is hard to watch. But watch it to the end for a picture of the suspect’s face.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.
Police, please get these thugs off the street and in jail.
slime
I hope this person is found and prosecuted to the full extent of the law and then some. There is zero excuse for this and people like this should not be allowed to walk the streets.
I hope the victim is OK. I’m sure this was extremely frightening and I know that stopping and reordering credit cards, insurance cards, etc. is a real hassle.
WSR – if possible, please keep us posted on how this progresses. Thank you for your coverage.
Despicable, cowardly act.
attempted robbery of a 90 year old. unbelievable. In Saudi Arabia they have an effective punishment for this. Here, the suspect will never be caught and if so will just be told politely not to try to rob anymore senior citizens. Pathetic.
This robbery was not attempted, it was completed.
That was not an “attempted” act. He did not “try.”
Very sad to SEE this happen during the day to an elder.
I took a screenshot so I can have the photo handy.
WSR – please take a screenshot at 0:49 sec and add to the article here. I’m surprised the NYPD didn’t do that for you.
The resolution is good and it clearly shows a distinct nose shape and cheek bone structure. He would already be in custody in many countries.
Disgusting.
Thank goodness he didn’t physically hurt her, but it’s awful.
That kind of emotional stress can be deadly. I hope she has supportive friends or family. How can anyone feel safe outside by themselves anymore, particularly women and the elderly. Sickening.
This is absolutely sickening. Pick on someone your own size, coward.
Sadly, with the lax laws and bail BS going on, he probably will get out on a Desk ticket and not return 20 days later for the court date. Everyone needs to get their backbone up, like in the 70’s/80’s we are still at the bottom, but hopefully will start going up this summer. I know stop and frisk was wrong, but the city was much safer during Bloomberg.
The city got safer under De Blasio than it was under Bloomberg and certainly than Giuliani, until the pandemic. Look it up. The safest years were under DeB.
I get so tired of correcting people on so called “stop and frisk.” “Stop, question, and frisk” as a policing tactic is still in place, as long as there is reasonable cause. The policy under Bloomberg was “stop and frisk with racial profiling.” This was declared unconstitutional, and it was so.
People were frisked not because they were reasonably suspected of a crime but simply because they were Black and Hispanic males. Bloomberg admitted as much. It was a racist, Jim Crow policing policy.
At the height, well over 500,000 were stopped and frisked every year. The vast majority were young dark skinned males.
There is no evidence this made the city safer. In fact, just the opposite.
If you want to defend this overtly racist policy, have at it, but call it what it was, and admit to yourself what you are defending.
“SQ&F” would have been great if your buddy de Blasio and his ‘progressive’ City Council cohorts didn’t turn their backs on the NYPD and work to encourage a a massive anti-police campaign. In doing so, they hamstrung cops from doing their jobs and created a dangerous atmosphere for everyone except criminals. The pandemic simply helped opened the door for more chaos.
“ The city got safer under De Blasio than it was under Bloomberg and certainly than Giuliani, until the pandemic. Look it up. The safest years were under DeB.” – is this a joke?
@Jen,
No, it’s not a joke, the annual murder rate continued to fall until the shutdown/pandemic.
Don’t apologize for Stop and Frisk. It was one of the best policies the city has ever had. It saved the lives of untold numbers of people, especially minorities.
@JC:
“Don’t apologize for Stop and Frisk. It was one of the best policies t”
And stop and frisk remains unconstitutional, not just “wrong” as the OP wrote.
Also not sure how stop and frisk would stop a purse snatcher.
Jay – stop and frisk sends a message to criminals that they will be caught and arrested. And it catches people doing one act before they can go on and do others, like the crime seen here.
Unfortunately the messaging from many elected NYC public officials is pro-suspect while ignoring the victims.
Totally agree. There were too many incidences of the police officers being overly aggressive, but rather than trying to take something that had a lot of positives and fixing it, they just threw out the whole thing.
I hope they throw the book at this guy. I don’t care what the value of the items he stole were – the criminal justice system should allow some discretion and this was really horrible.
Whether someone is “happy” to be stopped and frisked does not make the practice any more constitutional. What about those who are unhappy being frisked? And I wouldn’t expect to see much of that happen on West 64th St anyway. More like West 164th St.
And it is not at all like the TSA at the airport. Passengers there are all electing to take a specific mode of transportation. And everyone making that election is subject to being searched, not just “suspicious-looking” people.
Leon should not be able to get away with wallpapering over what Bloomberg-era “stop and frisk” was. It was racial profiling, and that was why it was declared unconstitutional.
Bloomberg admitted as such. Young Black and Hispanic males in the hundreds of thousands every year were “stopped and frisked”, many multiple times. It was a straight out racist Jim Crow policing procedure, one of the worst in the country.
Leon, assuming he is an older white male, is not giving away HIS rights. He is giving away the rights of young Blacks and Hispanics.
After DeB ended the racial profiling (well, it ended under Bloomberg when it was declared unconstitutional, but DeB ended the appeal), crime continued to go down. Look it up.
Leon, it’s your right to defend this practice, but at least have the intellectual honesty to admit what you are defending.
The “they” who “threw out the whole thing” was the courts that ruled stop and frisk to be unconstitutional. Just the words “stop and frisk” seem antithetical to the 4th amendment of the constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause.
And regardless, stop and frisk would have done nothing to stop this thug from going after the low-hanging fruit of an elderly woman’s purse. He did not brandish a weapon.
If there were something like stop and frisk then he might be a little more afraid of walking down the street with a women’s purse tucked under his coat.
I know many people who were subjected to stop and frisk who were very happy that it was in place, particularly residents of high crime neighborhoods. It really is no different than TSA at an airport.
Within reason, I am willing to give up this right to remain safe.
And those in our city government will continue making excuses for the behavior of these criminals.
What an absolute horror. Does anyone need a clearer wakeup call than this? Is crime a problem yet? Anybody? Her purse probably contained her keys, locking a 90 year old woman out of her home
Agree that he’ll be out on a desk ticket before long. But to the extent that he clearly looks around only for witnesses, not cameras, he’s likely to be stupid enough to offend this openly again
I hope they get this immoral creep and prosecute him to the full extent of the law.
I feel like these creeps are using masks as an “inconspicuous “ way to hide themselves. Grr.
Fwiw, that woman moves well for her age!
Can only hope someone will sneak up on him one day soon and commit a crime.
Another “crime of poverty” due to capitalism, according to AOC.
The problem is that these low life’s , even if arrested, will not go to jail. He will be back on the street in under 12 hours. There needs to be more $$$ give to the NYC police, to take back control of our streets.
So sad. Poor innocent elderly lady. How frightening for her. Hopefully an arrest can be made.
Everyone say thank you to the elected officials you voted for that enabled this. Can’t wait to read the follow up and count how many minutes he will be held when he is caught. The police will find him, bring him in and in an hour, he will be freed with a desk appearance ticket because his crime will be lowered to a misdemeanor & he’ll be in the wind doing it again. Feel safe? Let’s see what his charge will be. I know I didn’t vote for these leaders that have allowed this. Did you? Wake up.
What an absolute POS. This isn’t just about losing belongings/money, etc. Her keys were in that bag so now this 90 YEAR OLD WOMAN has to worry about getting back into her own home. She may have been carrying meds also. Pharmacy cards. Etc. But yes let’s continue to throw pity parties for the less fortunate committing these crimes.
Sickening and infuriating. Even if caught, he’ll be out in no time.
I am so tired of the incessant string of crimes I have no energy to be upset or angry with the perpetrator. Nor do I have energy to discuss our criminal system and soft-on-crime politicians again and again. Everything has been beaten to death. Nothing changes.
I do feel very sad for the lady. At her advanced age, despite being able to move only with a walker, she is nicely dressed for a sunny spring day out. And then this happens…
I couldn’t help thinking as she was moving as quickly as she could (to… chase him? Find a cop?):
…that her heart must really be pounding, a combination of fear, anger, helplessness, shame… to put somebody through that you must have no empathy whatsoever; he’s probably regarded her merely as a thing with a purse that’s he’s determined to have.
He may not have beat her black and blue (thank GOD) but psychologically, he did.
Unfortunately the District Attorney and Judges and AOC are more sympathetic to criminals than our seniors!
The politicians don’t seem to care that repeat offenders are running around and continuing criminal behavior without repercussions. So, find a way to cut funding to Legal Aid. The perps won’t have graduates from Columbia, NYU and Fordham trying to find legal Loopholes to release Repeat offenders. Yes everyone has a right to legal representation, but this is getting ridiculous.
You can’t be serious. Legal Aid helps a lot of people who are in bad legal situations and are not criminals. For example abused women, single parents , etc.
In addition, being represented is a major cornerstone of our system.
If we don’t get the drugs off the street or find a way to treat the heroine problem this will only get worse!