Delivery Workers Targeted For Robbery, Beat Up In Crown Heights
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It appears to be open season on food delivery workers in one section of Brooklyn.
As CBS2's Steve Langford reported, robbers are making life dangerous and less profitable for them.
Delivery workers have been targeted in a series of seven attacks in Crown Heights over a period of weeks.
"They choked me down," Singh Gurpreet said.
Gurpreet was beaten and robbed outside of a Dean Street address on August 1, after being lured to the area by a fake delivery order.
"Three or four guys beat me up. I can't see them. They beat my head," he said.
They took his phone, $300, and his pizza.
"I don't put up a fight, I surrender," he said.
In an area of just a few blocks, delivery workers have been punched, choked, threatened with guns, and attacked with chemicals.
One of the delivery men was robbed of his entire order of two chicken sandwiches, two cheeseburgers, three slices of pizza, two cans of soda, ice cream, and banana pudding.
"He was just like real shooken up. He was asking for help," John Cruz said.
Cruz said his wife helped the delivery man after an attack on St. Mark's Avenue.
"He said he had only like $20 in change on him, and that they basically took the food, and that was about it. They just wanted the food," Cruz said.
Surveillance video released has been released by police of two suspects in another of these robberies in which the thugs got away with the delivery worker's wallet and seven boxes of pizza.
The suspects remain at large as the plight of delivery workers continues.
In one of the robberies, the suspect pushed the delivery worker off of his motorized bicycle and took off on it.