Armed Robber Knocks Off 4 Businesses in Gramercy, East Midtown: NYPD

GRAMERCY, NY — The NYPD is looking for a suspect who has robbed four businesses, including a bank, in the past week in the Gramercy, Kips Bay and East Midtown areas. The man has entered three of the locations with a knife, and threatened to shoot customers in one of the incidents, police said.

The first robbery occurred on Oct. 19 at 8:10 a.m. when the suspect entered Kips Bay Cleaners on East 34th Street and demanded money from a woman working there. Police say she refused at first, but the suspect hit her in the head with a stapler and stole $110.

The second incident took place one day later at 8:20 a.m. when the man threatened an employee at Health Source Pharmacy on East 34th Street with a knife and stole an unknown amount of money from the cash register, according to police.

On Oct. 22, police say the same man robbed a 25-year-old woman at the Chase Bank at 333 E. 23rd St. He shoved the woman into the ATM vestibule after she had withdrawn money, pulled out a knife and took $40 from her.

The most recent robbery took place on Monday when the man threatened a 21-year-old woman working at Nature's First Pharmacy in Gramercy with a knife, police said. When a customer tried to intervene, police say the suspect threatened to shoot everyone in the store, though he displayed no gun. He stole $200 from the pharmacy's cash register. Surveillance footage from the incident shows the suspect approaching the woman behind the counter and demanding cash.

The suspect is described by police as a man in his 40s, about 5-foot-8, and last seen wearing a black and gray long sleeve plaid shirt and a red and blue knit cap.

Anyone with information in regards 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).

Photo/Video Credit: NYPD