A 17-year-old boy was busted and multiple other moped-riding menaces are wanted by police in a weeks-long, 29-incident robbery spree that mostly targeted chain-wearing victims across Queens and Brooklyn, police said Friday.
The teen was nabbed on Tuesday in connection with seven robberies between July 1 and July 8, according to the NYPD.
In six of the hold-ups, he and his accomplices allegedly stole chains from men between the ages of 16 and 49 in Astoria, Richmond Hill, Bayside, Ozone Park and Flushing, police said.
He was charged with grand larceny in those crimes, authorities said.
In another, the teen and his pals allegedly rolled up to a 41-year-old man on 87th Road near 155th Street in Jamaica around 5:10 p.m. July 1 and stole a moped, authorities said.
He faces a second-degree robbery rap in that incident, according to cops.
“Multiple” other bandits on wheels are wanted in connection to the 29-incident spree that began on June 15 in Hunters Point and ended on July 10 in Richmond Hill, police said.
The spree included one gunpoint robbery — in which the crew flashed the weapon at a 20-year-old man before grabbing his chain on Liberty Avenue near 110th Street in Ozone Park around 11:15 a.m. July 10, cops said.
The youngest victim was a 14-year-old boy who had his chain yanked away when the suspects approached him on a moped around 4:30 p.m. June 25 at 42nd Avenue and Bell Boulevard in Bayside, cops said.
The oldest was an 80-year-old man, whose chain was forcibly stolen around 11:40 p.m. July 5 at 70th Avenue and 108th Street in Forest Hills, authorities said.
The victims were mostly men, aside from a 45-year-old woman who was walking on Manhattan Avenue near Milton Street in Greenpoint around 1:50 p.m. June 24 when the moped-riders ambushed her and ripped the chain off her neck, cops said.
All of the victims were either unharmed or refused medical attention, according to police.
The NYPD released surveillance images of two of the suspects who remain at large in hopes of tracking them down.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts 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 Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.
