By Gus Saltonstall
A man riding his electric-bike home through Central Park on Wednesday night was robbed at knifepoint, a police spokesperson told West Side Rag.
The 38-year-old man was riding home through the park near 77 East Drive about 8:25 p.m., when he was approached and surrounded by 8 people, police said. A member of the group pulled out a knife and told the biker to stop, NYPD added.
The attacker then shoved the victim to the ground, before the group grabbed his bike and fled into the Ramble section of the park, police said. The 38-year-old’s cellphone was also attached to his bike, police added.
The victim did not require medical attention.
The incident comes less than 24-hours after two 20-year-olds were robbed at knifepoint while sitting on a bench in Central Park near 64 Center Drive. The NYPD spokesperson said there was no indication that the two robberies were connected.
There have been no arrests in either case.
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This has got to stop. A major crackdown is required.
We need the things from the police that helped lower crime in the past, such as stop and frisk, broken-window policing. We also need a serious law-enforcement DA and a City Council that puts the safety of the general citizenry above the desire to “dismantle the carceral state.” Violent criminals need to be incarcerated.
Stop and Frisk is unconstitutional.
After dark Central Park has not been safe since the 1960s.
Can you cite any evidence showing that stop and frisk actually lowered crime?
Stop and frisk did not lower crime. It’s a myth of the NYPD. https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/does-stop-and-frisk-reduce-crime
Or you could use your common sense and general faculties of comprehension to extrapolate from one’s experience living in the city fifteen years ago and compare it to living in the city since the current hands off policing regime took away stop and frisk. Don’t listen to this idiotic criminology reports – they are as untrustworthy as the “academics” who pen them. Politics by another means.
Stop & frisk did indeed reduce crime. The Penn study contradicts itself. However, S&F also violated civil liberties, which is why it was right to curtail it. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/crime-dropped-under-stop-frisk-which-worth-remembering-rush-criticize-ncna1151121
Unfortunately Alvin Bragg (and Letitia James) are busy using their resources to “get Trump”.
No. They can prosecute white collar criminals and business and bank cheats at the same time they prosecute blue collar criminals. It’s not either / or. People can walk and chew gum at the same time.
77 East Drive is the north end of the park, and nowhere near the Rambles. I am guessing this was near 77th and 5th?
The park begins at 60th and ends at 110th. That is 50 blocks. 77th is most definitely at the southern end of the park just north of the Met Museum.. I live at the northern end which presents its own set of challenges. My husband in his early 70s commutes on his non electric bike every day to midtown, rides home very often after 8:30 pm by the time he exits at West 106th. Hopefully no one wants his regular old bike or his old i phone.
That’s why I carry an old Western Electric rotary dial telephone on my bike as a decoy. Seriously though, it’s not a bad idea to carry an old decoy phone to give up. Or buy a non-working late model phone on ebay. Also carrying an old wallet with expired credit cards and a little cash that can be given up is better than handing over one’s real wallet. By the time they figure it out, you’ll be gone.
Those sound like good ideas.
(Also, what a world we live in that we now need decoy wallets and phones.)
No need to hyperbole or paranoia at every isolated incident, they say. Now it’s 3 incidents in a week of large, armed gang(s) marauding the area and swarming victims. Can’t wait to hear more about how bad the 1990s and the 1760s were…it’s so helpful.
1760s, before there was a USA let alone a Central Park???
“You folks are just gaslighting yourselves! UWS is one of the safest and best neighborhoods in the world.”
Another round of Kum Ba Yah, and pass the weed!
Sitting on a bench in Central Park at any hour puts citizens in danger nowadays. All you are is a sitting duck and the emboldened criminals consider you easy prey. The socialist “progressives” have taken our rights away and aren’t finished yet!!
The technique of surrounding a single victim with a crowd of assailants is very like what was done in the robbery of the 19-year-old on the subway platform at 59th St a few days ago.
I’m old enough to remember when muggers did their wet work by themselves. Now it’s both a weapon and a gang of 8 to 12 people.
I am curious if any of these groups are migrants. I know the ACLU will chime in but we need to start putting our tax paying law abiding citizens first. Commit a crime you go to Jail.
Hmmmm 🤔 very similar to the WILDING incidents of the ‘80s
I was thinking the same thing, Joey.
Remember when “wilding” was a thing in central park. The summer season should be a blast! The fault line t probably that the city doesn’t provide enough resources and activities so these individuals can entertain themselves otherwise. This will be the response. Give the elected more budget so they can address it.
Really? Nobody provided any resources to my friends and I in high school, yet we did not commit crimes. Perhaps parental involvement and consequences for crime rather than more funding are an answer?
No parks after dark. It’s not new
I’m not sad I left Manhattan in 1978. Maybe I am…a little. I used to be able to walk home from the village to my apartment at night all the way to 88th street. Was never bothered by anyone. It’s quite different nowadays.
But you certainly wouldn’t have gone through the park at night in 1978!
When I moved to the UWS in 1980 people would say ” You can’t go uptown beyond 82nd Street!
The only time in my life in NYC that I was able to walk safely in Central Park after dark was in the 00s and early 2010s. Whatever the city did then to prevent crime, it worked. They should do that again.
Could these alleged perpetrators be the same people who jump over turnstiles, and attack subway workers?
Turnstile jumping is a case in point. That’s why I and many others thought that “broken windows” policing is good, i.e. cut down on lower-level crime and it helps cut down serious crime.
What are you doing in Central Park at night with electric bike?
When you have something valuable as electric bike, you gotta be around other people when traveling in different routes, not Central Park.
Well, I guess it’s back to your Schwinn!!!
The person at fault was not the victim.
Who woulda thought that random acts of violence might be the downfall of this once great City.? Crime pays these days. Statistics aren’t collected with the rigor of the 1970s. Police are demoralized with their hands tied and worse. We do not have needed leadership under Adams whether in schools, parks, public transportation, prisons, or streets. Like most recently polled, New Yorkers are not feeling good about the state of of the City because of ineffective leadership and its consequences.
Don’t forget Bragg and his people. I’m more disgusted with him than Mayor Adams (although Adams’ vision of NYC as Party City and the pot capitol of the US – remember that bit of inspirational urban planning? – didn’t endear him to me either).
These criminals will later commit even worse crimes, like shooting police officers.
We see this time and time again with arrest records, like the recent tragedy in Queens.
It’s high time the city council and state legislature stop hamstringing the police.
It’s the police doing it to themselves.
Case in point, treating e-bike pedestrian deaths as a quality of life issue.
It’s high time that we stop downgrading consequences for non-violent crimes like shoplifting and fare-beating.
Was the victim able to provide a description of the attackers? If not, I would think that finding these people is going to be difficult.
I grew up here and am so disheartened to hear a continuous stream of attacks throughout the City, whether in the park, subways or streets.
I’m glad this victim wasn’t seriously hurt but being surrounded, thrown down and robbed is terrifying! And the loss of his possessions is inexcusable.
As the police say, there are repeat offenders that aren’t punished for lesser crimes, and let loose on the streets after numerous crimes .
A revolving door.
Yes this is tied in with the leniency of bail reform laws as well as so much mental illness.
There was a report on the radio recently that cited, almost half of those incarcerated in Rikers, have some kind of mental problems.
Is there much being addressed with that or re: stiffer laws for repeat violent offenders? Do judges have any more discretionary powers to keep dangerous offenders off the street? I thought there was some changes?
Long gone are the days when I could stroll across the park to the Met. I’m not that sure about the M79…
What are CP precinct police doing ? Sitting in their precinct house? Barely see them in the park. This is crazy
I was also robbed by a group of 8 men in the park near W 72nd st on Tuesday night while walking my dog and blamed myself / didn’t report it. Saw this reporting and it stirred me to call the police and do so. Has to be the same group. Thank you!
Can you describe the 8 men further?
What time was it? I am so glad you reported it. – we have to make these things known. I run after work in CP. – don’t have anything to steal but I’m sure violence iwould not be unlikely. The police need to get out there and umdercover
I’m sorry that happened to you and I’m really glad you reported it, but why did you initially blame yourself?
Everyone currently blaming themselves for the behavior of criminals needs to stop that. We are not talking about natural disasters – it’s not like avoiding the ocean during a storm. These criminals are malevolent people attacking other people and too often getting away with it. Please stop excusing their behavior because you “shouldn’t have been in the park after dark” or you “shouldn’t have been walking on West End Avenue at midnight” or you – what – shouldn’t have been taking the subway after 8pm? Where does it end?
Push back. ALWAYS report crimes.
Wild. I used to ride my escooter home from work most nights, many times post midnight. Sometimes I thought how easy it could be for someone to do exactly that, especially since the park was empty. 8:25 however is not past midnight, so that’s pretty wild it occurred then.
Stay out of Central Park until City Hall & NYPD get message from public: What are you doing with NYC tax money to protect ALL citizens?
This is crazy though. If I’m reading this right, near the Harlem meer, that’s a fast section of the bike lane especially getting speed up to go up the following hill, where a guy on his ELECTRIC BIKE was stopped?? Like, the 8 attackers assembled out into the bike lane in a LINE to stop the victim? You would presumably think you were safe at 8:25pm (a lot of other bikers/joggers are out at that time for after work exercise) and probably going at a good clip. Pretty ballsy to stop bike lane traffic and rob someone of their bike at that time. I’ve probably seen bikers pushing 25-30 miles/hr in that section…
It’s not a group, it’s a gang !
Look, just don’t go into the Park at night. Or too early in the morning. Too dangerous. And stay off the subway. Too dangerous. And don’t drive into Midtown. Too expensive. Y’know, just stay out of NYC.
Whoever is in charge of New York’s latest promotional campaign needs to be fired!