Here’s a tip for the guy who beat up a 101-year-old woman in a walker and took off with her purse: Get out of New York.
The vicious mugging, caught on surveillance tape, has sparked outrage in a city where people are accustomed to hearing about strange and violent crimes. Police have launched an all-out manhunt, but it’s not just the cops who want the villain’s head.
“I could hold him, and let the woman beat him up,” said Joe Sarju, 59, who lives in the Queens neighborhood where the attack occurred. “I’d love to beat him, but then they would lock me up.”
The heartlessness of the March 4 attack is clearly conveyed on the grainy, black-and-white videotape, which has now been broadcast well beyond New York.
In it, 101-year-old Rose Morat is trying to leave her apartment building to go to church. The mugger, a man who looms over the senior citizen and is holding on to a bicycle, pretends to help her get through the vestibule.
Then, he turns to grab Morat’s head and delivers three hard punches to her face, and swipes her purse. The dazed victim tries to reach for her purse when the mugger hits her again, pushing her and her walker to the ground.
He got away with $33 and Morat’s house keys. She suffered a fractured cheekbone and spent time in the hospital. The attack didn’t break Morat’s spirit, though: She has said in the days since that if she had been just a bit younger, she would have gone after the guy.
“I’m a very strong woman,” she said. “I’ve been that way my whole life.”
The NYPD has assigned dozens of detectives to the case and shown every uniformed officer in the city the surveillance video. Police are canvassing nearby residential buildings and businesses.
They believe the same man also attacked 85-year-old Solange Elizee, another neighborhood resident, shortly after robbing Morat. Elizee suffered facial cuts and bruises. The mugger took off with $32 and her wedding band.
Based on the victims’ memories and the tape, police say the attacker is a black man in his 30s, about 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds. He wore a winter jacket with a fur-lined hood. Police said Tuesday there were no new developments.
Several posters have been placed throughout the generally quiet Queens neighborhood, urging anyone with information to call with tips. So far, at least $18,000 in reward money is being promised by several sources, including the police.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in the state Senate proposed making it a felony to assault anyone older than 70. Currently, such assaults are misdemeanors, punishable by no more than a year in jail.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers struggled for the right words to describe the attacker because expletives just don’t seem adequate. In interviews and letters to newspapers, some suggested he deserves life imprisonment — or perhaps until he’s 101.
John Brown, 45, said the mugger must have been on drugs, because no rational person would do such a thing. “That was a cowardly act,” he fumed.
Others were reminded of the perils that could face their own parents and grandparents. Some wondered whether the mugger’s mother was alive.
“My mom is 95, and if someone ever raised a hand to her … they’d be dead,” said Anthony Riccardelli, 58, who works near the crime scene.
For others, it’s not just about getting revenge. Glenridge senior center in Queens decided to bring back self-defense courses after receiving dozens of phone calls on the topic after the attacks.
Susan Simonetti, the center’s executive director, also had a warning for the mugger: “Pick on somebody your own age.”
NEW YORK (AP) — For a moment, the man in the grainy video looks like a good Samaritan holding the door open for an elderly neighbor. Then he turns and delivers three sharp punches to the 101-year-old woman’s head.
“The next thing I knew, I had a big bang on the side of my face,” said Rose Morat, who suffered a fractured cheekbone and lost her purse and $33 to the mugger.
The attack was captured by a surveillance camera in the lobby of her Queens apartment building last Sunday.
“I’m quite sure that if it had happened when I was younger, I would have been after him,” she said. “I’m a very strong woman. I’ve been that way my whole life.”
Police said the same man is believed to have later attacked a second elderly woman in the neighborhood. Investigators were searching for a suspect Saturday.
“We are pulling out all the stops to find him,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. “We want to stop him before he strikes again.”
Morat said she was headed to church when she met the man in her lobby. He offered to help her make her way out, but she declined.
“I know how to handle myself,” she said.
As Morat maneuvered her walker through the building’s small vestibule, the man slowly put his bicycle against the wall, turned, and attacked her, the security video showed.
Her hat flew off, but she remained on her feet as the man removed her bag and felt her coat pockets.
Then, before making his escape, he punched her in the head again and shoved her to the ground.
Morat spent three days in the hospital.
The 85-year-old woman believed to be the mugger’s second victim, Solange Elizee, told police she was punched and pushed to the floor outside her apartment door by a man who had initially offered to help her get home.
“I like to help old people,” he said before turning violent, according to Elizee.
The man took her purse and got away with $32, police said.
ACWORTH, Georgia (AP) — Georgia authorities Wednesday were searching for two young women, possibly teenagers, who robbed a supermarket bank branch, laughing as they held up a teller with nothing but sunglasses to disguise their faces.
The two handed a Bank of America branch teller a note demanding cash, smiled as they waited and then walked out with stolen money Tuesday, police said.
It wasn’t clear if they had a weapon, police said.
Their images, captured on bank surveillance video during the 12:15 p.m. robbery Tuesday, were released by police and already had led to several tips, Cobb County police spokesman officer Wayne Delk said.
Authorities have not said how much money was taken, but Delk said it is “considerable.”
Police said the two could be as young as 16. Witnesses were unable to tell investigators whether they left in a car.
The store is in a strip mall in an upscale west Cobb residential neighborhood, about 28 miles north of Atlanta.
Delk said one of the girls appears to be laughing in a bank surveillance camera image — as though “it’s all fun and games to them.”
Wow, i found this article on CNN.com and had to post it! Unbelievable.
SAN FRANCISCO — A convicted bank robber went on a crime spree just a week after being released from federal custody and was caught in part because he never changed out of the 1980s-style clothes - including a Members Only jacket — he was wearing when he was released from prison, San Francisco police said today.
Paul Paris, 54, was released from a halfway house Feb. 2 and proceeded to rob a Citibank branch at 4638 Mission St. on Feb. 9, said robbery Inspector Dan Gardner. The robber was caught on a surveillance camera wearing a Members Only jacket and a hairnet, Gardner said — the same clothes Paris had on when his probation officer photographed him the day he was released from prison.
“It’s classic – I’ve used this line before, but once a bank robber, always a bank robber,” Gardner said. “We had a great surveillance photo.”
The surveillance photo of the robber was distributed to local law-enforcement agencies, court records show, and U.S. Probation Officer Jennifer James recognized Paris in the picture.
Gardner secured an arrest warrant Tuesday, he said, but police hadn’t yet caught up to Paris when he allegedly struck another bank in Millbrae on Wednesday and a third bank in Folsom on Thursday.
Paris was taken into custody without incident at the Franciscan Hotel on Third Street around 3 a.m. today by officers from the Bayview Station, Gardner said.
Gardner would not say how much money the robber made off with in the thefts, but court records show he took $6,650 from the San Francisco Citibank.
Paris approached a bank teller and twice asked, “Do you know where I can get the Federal Express card?” FBI Special Agent Richard Anderson wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
When the teller replied, “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about,” Paris took out a small silver handgun from a backpack and said, “Give me the money!” the affidavit said.
After the teller handed over some money, Paris said, “Give me hundreds, fifties, twenties. Give me all your money!” Anderson wrote.
Paris threw back rubber bands that had been wrapped around the bills, saying, “I don’t need that!” the affidavit said.
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A thief called to apologize after assaulting a robbery victim. Police said that on Christmas Eve, two masked men tied up a couple at Missouri Poster and Banner at 1331 Erie St., and beat the owner. A week later, someone called to apologize and returned some of the stolen items…
“I’m really sorry about the other night. It didn’t turn out anything like it was supposed to,” the caller said. Police said they hope the message will lead them to the culprits.Â
Clenzo Thompson really should get a new career. The bird-brained bandit was busted for sticking up the same Brooklyn bank twice in three days - and having a dye pack explode in his face both times, cops said.
And this is three years after he robbed another bank but dropped his state ID card while pocketing the cash, sources said.
On Jan. 12, Thompson, 45, slipped a holdup note to a teller in Commerce Bank’s Park Slope branch, on Fifth Avenue near Garfield Place, cops said. He got back $2,340 stacked to conceal the soon-to-explode dye pack.
Yet, just two days later, Thompson allegedly took a livery cab to the same bank, told the driver to wait, went in and handed a note to a different teller - who handed him $1,740 and another dye pack.
This one burst inside the cab, prompting the driver to jump out and the never-say-dye Thompson to take the wheel, speed off and abandon the car a few blocks away, authorities said.
But cops found fingerprints in the bank. This time, he was arrested on Jan. 25 at a pal’s place in Boonton, N.J.
An overheated armed robbery suspect has been caught lifting his balaclava (mask) in front of a surveillance camera.
Police have distributed a photograph of the man, believed to be the main offender in a group which held eight patrons and a barmaid hostage at gunpoint in Rotorua’s Ruck’n Maul bar on Sunday night.
Police believe the man was hot and pulled up his balaclava in a place where he thought he was not observed.
Five people are being sought for the hold-up.
Two patrons were bashed in the robbery, which lasted 10 minutes and ended when the raiders fled with an unknown amount of cash.
Two of the robbers carried guns and ordered barmaid Stevie Mitchell to open 16 poker machines as patrons cowered on the floor.
Ms Mitchell was also forced to hand over the keys to her Nissan Primera.
Detective Sergeant Garry Hawkins said the victims had been through an ordeal which had “the potential for homicide”.
Mr Hawkins said the robbers were unlikely to have taken unloaded weapons when entering a bar where patrons were drinking.
Police are also looking for a maroon Subaru Legacy stationwagon seen at Kuirau Park in the central city before the 8.30pm robbery.
The robbers dumped Ms Mitchell’s car at the park and police believe the Subaru was driven by accomplices waiting to pick them up.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Rotorua police on (0800) Tip Off or (07) 348-0099.
A robber with a note hit a bank on U.S. 19 N Monday afternoon and got away before officers arrived. But Wednesday, Clearwater police officers were waiting for Anthony J. Russo when the 40-year-old man checked in with his probation officer not far from the police station, officials said.
“When he went to see his probation officer, he was wearing the same clothes (as) when he robbed the bank,” said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor.
Russo lives at 40 Bay Esplanade, Apt. 3, in Clearwater Beach. About 2:30 p.m. Monday, Shelor said, Russo went into a Wachovia Bank in the 25700 block of U.S. 19 N and handed a note to a teller demanding money.
Russo escaped, Shelor said, but he left behind fingerprints that officers used together with video surveillance to identify him.
The police officers learned that Russo was scheduled to visit his probation officer two days later. Around noon Wednesday, Russo checked in with the officer at a building at Lake Avenue and Park Street - about two blocks from the Clearwater police station.
Russo was charged with bank robbery and was being held at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
ACWORTH, Georgia (AP) — Georgia authorities Wednesday were searching for two young women, possibly teenagers, who robbed a supermarket bank branch, laughing as they held up a teller with nothing but 
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A thief called to apologize after assaulting a robbery victim. Police said that on Christmas Eve, two masked men tied up a couple at Missouri Poster and Banner at 1331 Erie St., and beat the owner. A week later, someone called to apologize and returned some of the stolen items…
Clenzo Thompson really should get a new career. The bird-brained bandit was busted for sticking up the same Brooklyn bank twice in three days - and having a dye pack explode in his face both times, cops said.
An overheated armed robbery suspect has been caught lifting his balaclava (mask) in front of a surveillance camera.
A struggling Austrian toyshop owner was arrested after he tried to rob a bank with one of his toy guns.
