6 Young Men Rob 2 Stores In Queens, Spraying Clerks With Unknown Substance, Police Say
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police say the same six young men robbed two electronics stores in the Elmhurst and Flushing sections of Queens last Saturday, both times spraying the stores' employees with an unknown substance.
The young men, ages 16 to 20 years old, walked into Lacan's Wireless on Warren Street around 6:35 p.m. and distracted the clerk with a series of questions.
"They asked me about the phones -- Do you repair phones? Fix phones? But they distracted me from the left side to the right side," owner Edgar told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria. "The last question was do you have iPhone 7?'"
The clerk removed a cellphone from the display case and one of the suspects sprayed him in the face with something that burned his eyes. Then, the suspects grabbed the phone and fled.
"I washed my face and came out, I saw the showcase was now open and iPhone 7 was not there. They took the phones," Edgar said.
About 15 minutes later, the same young men pulled a similar robbery at a store on Roosevelt Avenue, this time making off with approximately $3,000 worth of electronics.
Anyone with information about these incidents 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 or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.