A gang of migrants has been orchestrating the ongoing “wolfpack” robberies in Central Park according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
A recent report from ABC7 alleged migrants from city-run shelters may be behind the “recent increases in robberies in the southern end of Central Park.” The perpetrators often surround their victims like a “wolfpack” to mug them of their belongings.
An 11-year-old arrested in connection to a robbery in the subway Tuesday night was captured on surveillance video using credit cards from one of the Central Park victims, who is part of an eight-incident pattern.
Two of the three young suspects arrested in a robbery in Grand Army Plaza in Central Park early Tuesday are residing in city-run migrant shelters, one of them at the Row Hotel.
The suspects in Tuesday night’s mugging who robbed two men in their 20s sitting on a park bench are believed to be 16 or 17. That happened at West 62nd Street and West Drive around 10:45 p.m.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said the thieves tend to be young kids no more than age 15.
“Southern part of the park, we see a lot of robberies, group robberies, young kids, mugging people or taking their property, we believe these are young migrants who are committing these robberies,” Chell told reporters.
“Although they’re very young, you know, very impressionable, they do have a big influence on this group, you know, and that’s something we haven’t really readily seen,” NYPD Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino said. “It’s one of the first times I’ve ever seen it in my career.”
Alan Kemp, a food vendor in the city, said that he has become more wary of Central Park since the spike in robberies.
“I can’t afford to get robbed, ripped off, mugged, stabbed,” Kemp said. “I heard that people are getting stabbed. And I can’t afford to go through that. Not at my age. Now I’m 68.”
The NYPD will reportedly deploy drones into the park by the end of the of the month, reporting incidents in less than a minute, and tracking suspects until police arrive. Every night after 7 p.m., an extra 40 police officers will be deployed to the park until the drones make their debut.
“We look at the map, these are where the crimes are happening in the southern part of the park, maybe between 7 p.m. and maybe midnight,” Chell said. “We put those 40 extra cops between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. like you said, we call it cops on the dots and we will start from there.”
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