Thief targeting victims at the ATM

  Eyewitness News' Nina Pineda

(Upper East Side-WABC, March 21, 2006) (WABC) -- This morning police are trying to catch up with a crook who is targeting ATMs in Manhattan.

So far, the suspect has hit at least four times in the last three weeks, and all at ATM machines on the Upper East Side. Police have released a photo of the suspect they are looking for.

Eyewitness News reporter Nina Pineda has the details.

Three times he has come after customers. Police say he uses intimidation as a weapon and plays on fear to get what he wants.

In each brazen robbery, the thief walks away with fistfulls of cash. Victims are forced to access their own accounts and hand over their money to the waiting hands of the suspect, who police say is on an East Side spree targeting ATM users at two Chase Banks.

"It doesn't make sense why you are using an ATM in the evening and getting cash and walking by yourself," one customer said.

Some customers at the branch on Lexington Avenue and 72nd Street, blame the darkness and seclusion of the setting.

"Everytime I come here there's nobody there," one customer added.

On March 1st at 7:30 at night, a 62-year-old man was approached and ordered to remove money from the machine. The easy score would encourage the robber to pull the same trick blocks away. He allegedly moved to another Chase at 79th and Third Avenue on March 9th, demanding cash from a 62-year-old woman before returning to Lexington Avenue two more times.

On March 14th, again around 7:30 at night, a 35-year-old woman was threatened and robbed. And last Saturday, a teenager became the latest victim. The 18-year-old girl was followed into the ATM. The suspect warned her, along with the others, that if she didn't do as he said, she would get hurt.

Police say that in one of the cases, the suspect may have hailed a cab after the robbery.

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•