Mustang-Driving Duo Mugged A Dozen People In 2 Weeks, Cops Say

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — Police have nabbed one half of a robbery duo who are suspected of pulling off more than a dozen robberies across the city in just two weeks, stealing more than $60,000 and a car.

Brandon McDonald, a 32-year-old from Greenpoint, was charged Monday with one of 13 August robberies police had connected throughout Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The charges pin McDonald as one of two men that mugged a 25-year-old woman while she was walking on Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint back on Aug. 9, police said. McDonald and his partner came up to the woman just before 4 a.m., took out a gun and demanded her purse. They drove away with the bag, which was worth $2,372, police said.

But police sources told the New York Post that cops expect additional charges will be brought against McDonald as victims from the other crimes ID him as one of their robbers.

Cops first linked McDonald as one of the suspects for the citywide robbery pattern back in August, an NYPD spokesperson said.

The duo had robbed 13 different people in the first half of August, sometimes mugging as many as four people in one day. Most times, the pair would use a gun or say they had a gun to steal the cell phones, jewelry, cash and credit cards, racking up more than $60,000 worth of loot throughout the two weeks.

In their first robbery, on Aug. 1, the duo even stole a red Ford Mustang in Crown Heights, which they would use as a getaway car in many of the later muggings, police said.

The pair was sometimes unsuccessful and ran away without stealing anything, but a few times they made off with several thousand dollars at a time.

On Aug. 3, the pair stole jewelry from a 27-year-old man standing at Queens Plaza that was worth $24,000. Just days later, on Aug. 6, they mugged a 40-year-old man who was walking on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan and made off with a cell phone and jewelry that cost $15,000. Their most recent robbery was on Aug. 17, when they stole $21,000 wroth of jewelry and cell phones from two 28-year-olds in Greenwich Village.

Police said they are still looking for the second person involved in the robbery spree. They have not yet released the name of the second suspect.

Anyone with information in regard to the identity of the males 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 a, on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are kept strictly confidential.