NYPD: Group Wanted For Stealing Athletic Gear From Upper East Side Stores
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for a group of young men who they say have stolen thousands of dollars in athletic gear from stores on the Upper East Side.
The group has struck at least three times since June.
On July 14, police said the 10 young men rushed into the Nike store on Third Avenue and grabbed whatever they could before fleeing with $2,583 in merchandise.
The incident was the second time police said the group struck the Nike store. On July 10, police said they grabbed around $1,200 worth of gear before taking off.
The two Nike robberies came three weeks after the young men allegedly attempted the same grab and run scheme at a Jack Rabbit store four blocks away. In that case, police said they stole more than $2,000 worth of running gear in seconds.
People in the area hope the suspects are caught.
"You don't do things like that anywhere, but especially not in this area," Ibrahim Turay told CBS2's Magdalena Doris. "I really hope that they're caught."
"You see it all over the internet," another man said. "These young kids, they learn from that and they want to do it."
"I think it's messed up. It's a safe neighborhood, it's a residential neighborhood, family neighborhood," said one Upper East Side resident.
"That's totally crazy," said a man who works in the neighborhood. "It's a good neighborhood, surrounded with good people. I don't expect this to happen around here."
"Nothing you can really do with 10 people," said another woman. "I don't know, if I was going to the gym and I saw 10 people running I'd probably run the other way."
Police describe the suspects as being in their teens or early 20s and say some of them were caught on surveillance video running with what appears to be a stack of sweatshirts and bags in their hands.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
