By Gus Saltonstall
A man was robbed at knifepoint Wednesday on the Upper West Side, a police spokesperson confirmed to West Side Rag.
A 29-year-old man was standing outside of 73 West 85th Street, near the corner of Columbus Avenue, around 7:15 p.m., when a man in a black face mask came up to him and flashed a knife, police said.
The culprit then snatched the victim’s cellphone and fled on foot in an unknown direction, police said. The 29-year-old man was not injured in the interaction, NYPD added.
There have been no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing, police said.
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Sounds like someone from ICE…
Nope, sorry, don’t buy it — the perp brandished knife, not a semi-automatic, a flashbang, tear gas, or a truncheon, and the victim emerged unscathed, at least physically. Besides, the victim is neither a five-year-old boy nor a two-year-old girl, nor are his friends and relatives now being “investigated” and smeared. Yet another tell: manipulated images of him in tears aren’t being circulated from the WH or what’s left of it, as happened to Nekima Levy Armstrong (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/white-house-ice-protest-arrest-altered-image).
Had this been the handiwork of Project Salvo, there would be no question about it.
seek out a mental health professional
Oh no. Someone said something snarky about something Trump-related. Circle the wagons and get angry. Heaven forbid anyone question dear leader! He is making a fool of our country and violating all of our civil rights to justify his childish insecurity.
Do you actually respect these ICE losers? Can’t wait until someone you know and love is abused by one of these pathetic people.
You guys can dish it out but can’t take it. So sad.
Lighten up…
And what if someone you “know and love” is harmed by an illegal immigrant who’s a lifelong criminal?
And what if someone YOU “know and love” is harmed by an American-born U.S. citizen (the most common scenario) who’s a lifelong criminal — would you then advocate for returning America to its indigenous inhabitants? If the criminal had been a woman, would you favor a “Handmaid’s Tale”-style society to keep ’em in line? And if the perp had been a person of color … well, I hardly need ask.
Maybe — radical concept alert! — we should simply focus on apprehending and punishing violent criminals, period.
This comment is completely irrelevant. Poor attempt to be edgy.
Is there any way to get more reporting on traffic injuries? We get an article for every robbery but nothing for the 21 traffic injuries we’ve had this month. https://crashmapper.org/#/?cfat=true&cinj=true&endDate=2026-01&geo=community_board&identifier=107&lat=40.78554566198343&lng=-73.96884441375731&lngLats=%255B%255D&mfat=true&minj=true&noInjFat=false&pfat=true&pinj=true&startDate=2026-01&vbicycle=true&vbusvan=true&vcar=true&vmotorcycle=true&vother=true&vscooter=true&vsuv=true&vtruck=true&zoom=15
For people who say “it’s just an injury” please read this https://jewishcurrents.org/after-the-hit-and-run
I wish not to minimize your concern, but some of those statictics are misrepresentative of the facts — indeed, of the 21 you list, 11 involve a car hitting another car and do not necessarily involve an injury, but rather an “incident” or “crash. In essence, there were not 21 injuries, but 21 events.
Yes, we should still remain vigilant and concerned, but if the facts are distorted (which many ORG’s , politicians from both sides, and interest groups do) than it is very hard to have an honest discussion . Everyone seems to have their own “facts”
Also, it’s very rare that a knife ends up in someones hand, (who is also wearing a face mask) by “accident.”
Does the motivation of the offence make a difference? In some cases — with drunk drivers for example, where “willful or wanton disregard for others’ safety” can be proven, the answer in an unequvaqule YES. In others, in could be unintentional. Still, injurious to the victim, but perhaps not criminal.
You do bring up a good point, but one set of harms does not invalidate another.
What a great, measured and substantive response. Thank you.
And notably no reply from the bicycle lobbyist who has never seen a car he cannot hate.
Find My Phone will lead police directly to thief, but do the police ever catch any of these criminals? Do the courts ever incarcerate them?
No and no
When you see someone in full face black mask, move away. That person is up to no good. I see this and am alert immediately.
Expect to see many of these shady types out on the street this coming weekend!
Unless you are not paying attention and on your phone!
it’s freezing out. lots of people are wearing all sorts of masks. this works better in summer
There is tremendous evening drug activity on Amsterdam and Columbus in the 80’s, and 90’s. Sometimes it’s with a car pulling up and stopping briefly at a street just as another man gets there to make an exchange. Sometimes it’s a walking or standing sale.
a ton of that going on pretty openly on broadway between 85th and 84th. there’s a homeless housing building there. a guy sits on a milk crate or in a folding chair and deals. i try to avoid that area at night.
There used to be a payphone in front of my building and I would see strange meetings like that late at night at the phone. It’s since been removed.
An apparent druggie tried something like this with me back in the ’80s near Broadway & 88th Street (in front of Mike’s Lumber, for those of you who remember). It didn’t quite work and, to omit a few details, he scuttled away in astonishment, sans knife. And then there was the time, also in the raw ’80s, when some zany fellow was swinging a lawn chair (yes!) around, menacing passers-by on Broadway. He tried it with me near 84th Street and ended up doing a sort of 360-degree back-flip onto the sidewalk, landing posterior first, with his lawn chair a considerable distance down the street.
I’ve thankfully had no such trouble since then; maybe the word went out.
I’m not advocating firmness, mind you, but merely reporting my own experiences of many years ago, back when things were more civilized.
Those who do, don’t talk. Those who talk, don’t do.
I did both. I can also even walk and chew sugar-free bubble gum at the same time. (Alas, on the occasions mentioned I was all out of bubble gum….)
I like this story. What exactly did you do to these guys? 🙂
Haven’t I stretched credulity around here enough already (cf. Doubting Tom)? Only the most yearning, repeated implorations might persuade me to elaborate further. (But it’s all true, folks, every bit — Asimov’s honest truth!)
ECM, obvs this is 40 years later. You may be still in good shape, but …
Thanks, and I do appreciate the concern. Although I don’t even go outside much these days (affording me more time to stay abreast of current events, practically a full-time job in our era of shock and awe), I retain an absolute intolerance for bullies and bullying, a trait no doubt picked up back in elementary school.
In the climactic final battle of the 1985 classic Commando, an estimated 3,007 bullets shot by a private army of over 100 men fly by our valiant protagonist played by Gov. Arnold without hitting him.
Heroic tales exist in this world, especially in the 1980s.
When in the face of overwhelming odds, it’s important to ask oneself, “What would Fritz Feld have done?”
Your kind is long gone from the City. These youngsters have zero street smarts and no situational awareness as they continuously stare at their ‘smart phones’. Often times, I feel like the only person on a subway car or walking down the street who isn’t looking at a phone. I ‘actively’ manage the skels that get close to me. I just pivot around on one foot gradually as they walk past and behind me. I am always checking my 6 whenever I am walking down the street and sense someone behind me. It’s becoming a lost art to be able to mount at least a minimum defense these days.
Yet another reason to deplore “smart” phones. Having not yet found a satisfactory substitute for T-Mobile (abandoned after it abandoned DEI in subservience to the God-Emperor of Doom), I remain contentedly phoneless.
Another important NYC life skill to master is that of the psychotic gaze — without actually being psychotic, of course; one shouldn’t take Method acting too far.
Don’t challenge ecm – you mess with the bull, you get the horns!
Though not the toilet-seat liner.
I remember Mike’s lumber.
Ah, but do you remember when Mike was on 79 and Amsterdam (in the Lucerne, on the west side of the front door?) Two of his children had not yet even been born. His family provided a real service to the community. Just try getting piece of wood cut in Manhattan these days.
Mike’s Carpenter Shop? Yep, I for two remember.
It’s so hard being a successful vampire-hunter around here in 2026….
Ah, but do you remember the name of the dry cleaning place immediately west of it, at the original site of Film Forum? (I don’t!)
Unknown direction??? Did he fly away???
He warped spacetime and left via the fourth dimension. He is still at 85th and Columbus, but lightyears away.
Jaunting across town would have been so much more straightforward.
Wait till the homeless encampments came to a block near you.
Of course. This is the new NYC. No repercussion when and if the culprit is found. Just let them all out to do it again and again.
Thanks Mamdami!!!
You’re welcome, Mr. Pile!
you can call me Gomer.
I hope they catch this white legal American.
I lived in 73 West 85th Street for several years – a lovely brownstone in a great neighborhood. What is happening to our city???
You stupid man. Please be more informed! ICE are rounding-up illegal aliens who are CRIMINALS.
Carol,
Unless you have already been deported, being in the USA without the correct immigration documentation is a civil offense, not a crime.
Furthermore, ICE is invading private residences without the required warrants. Who’s the criminal?
Yes! That five-year-old boy obviously stole his bunny-ears hat and his SpiderMan backpack.
Get these criminals off our streets by whatever means necessary!
And now, in its ongoing heroic efforts to smash the burgeoning nursery-school crime wave, ICE has graduated to detaining two-year-old girls:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/23/us-immigration-two-year-old-minnesota-girl
I do TRY, Carol, really. Let’s see…
☛ https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118692/documents/HMKP-119-JU00-20251118-SD001.pdf Therefrom: “Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to data released by the government. The number of people with no criminal history arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and detained by the Trump administration has now surpassed the number of those charged with crimes.”
☛ https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/#detention_nocrim (“73.6% of current detainees have no criminal convictions”)
☛ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-arrested-nearly-75000-people-no-criminal-records-data-shows-rcna247377
☛ https://stateline.org/2025/12/12/an-ever-larger-share-of-ices-arrested-immigrants-have-no-criminal-record/
Etc. The main thing, evidently, is hitting the quota.
Of course the ESPECIALLY dangerous illegal-alien criminals, like Renee Nicole Good, they don’t even bother to round up but just shoot in the head repeatedly. I feel so much safer now, don’t you?
Yes, criminals. Let’s categorize them all as criminals.
Saves time and trouble, especially considering so many of THEM are American-born citizens.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/23/us-news/2-robbed-of-cell-phones-in-pair-of-nyc-stick-ups-down-block-from-central-park-cops/
They caught them.