Robbers Steal More Than $40K From Armored Truck In Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Armed robbers made off with more than $40,000 Monday in a brazen daytime heist of an armored truck in the Bronx, police said.
Just before 11 a.m., two gunmen struck a truck guard in the head as he was making a weekly cash pickup from a BP gas station at Jerome and Cromwell avenues in the borough's Mount Eden section, CBS2's Lou Young reported.
The truck is owned by the Rapid Armored Corp. of Brooklyn. It makes pickups from the station on varying days of the week, but someone apparently knew what to expect this time.
The robbers took the guard's handgun as well the week's receipts, police said.
An employee at the gas station said he saw the robbery happen from behind the bulletproof glass in the attendant's station. He was still shaken when Young spoke with him.
"I'm a little bit nervous and scared," said Mohammed Momen, adding he estimates the bandits made off with about $43,000. " ... Never I see that like this."
Three hours after the heist, the armored car was still at the gas station with the engine running, as crime scene officers marked off distances, Young reported. Evidence markers were placed on the pavement near what appeared to be some kind of aerosol dispenser, possibly Mace or pepper spray.
It was a three-man robbery team -- the two armed men who made the grab and a getaway driver, who picked up his accomplices in a tan Buick on Cromwell Avenue, police said. The gas station has entrances on both Jerome and Cromwell avenues. The theives fled off on the Cromwell side apparently to avoid the security cameras at the businesses on Jerome Avenue, authorities said.
It's unclear what, if anything, the cameras at the gas station captured.
The station remained closed for more than five hours after the robbery.