NYPD: Armed Man Robs 6 Cellphone Stores In Brooklyn, Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The search is on for a man police said has been keeping busy this summer robbing cellphone stores in two boroughs.
The suspect has been targeting Metro PCS and Boost Mobile stores in Queens and Brooklyn. Police said he has struck six times since June.
In each incident, police said he pulls out a gun, forces employees to hand over cash from the register and then runs away.
In the first incident back on June 18, police said he walked into a Metro PCS Store on Fulton Street, pulled out a gun, took cash from the register and snatched a chain from a female employee before running off.
Surveillance video from the most recent incident shows the gunman bursting into a Metro PCS store on New Lots Avenue in East New York on Sunday.
"[He] came all the way over the counter and he took everything from the cashier," Isaac Emilio, who works at the store, told CBS2's Scott Rapoport.
Another surveillance video shows the suspect -- his face covered with a bandana -- waving a gun and demanding cash at another Metro PCS store in Church Avenue in East Flatbush last Wednesday, Rapoport reported.
Police said another video shows the suspect leaving the scene of another Metro PCS store he robbed on Flatlands Ave. in Canarsie back on July 27. They say the money he stole is in a black bag he's seen carrying.
Customers are on edge.
"Seeing this right now I'm scared to go in any shop. Anything can happen," East New York resident Mark Osagie said.
Police have described the man as 35-years-old, 5'10" with long black dreadlocks.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, visit the Crime Stoppers website, or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577.