A trio of teen terrors mugged a young woman in Central Park, injuring the parkgoer’s arm as they forced her to hand over her property, police said.
On Thursday, cops released images of the three suspects as the NYPD continues to tamp down on a troubling jump in robberies in the city’s iconic greenspace.
The trio grabbed the 27-year-old victim inside the park between the North Meadow and the 97th St. Transverse around 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 11, cops said — surrounding her, grabbing her by the arm and stealing her purse and cellphone before running off.
The three then used one of the victim’s credit cards during a shopping spree at a nearby convenience store.
All three robbers are believed to be between 14 and 17 years old, cops said. They are also thought to be part of a migrant crew responsible for the recent surge in robberies inside the park, police officials said.
Those in the crew include an 11-year-old boy who was apprehended Aug. 13 after he and another teen robbed a subway rider’s cellphone on a Queens No. 7 train as it approached the Vernon Blvd.-Jackson Ave. stop. Police managed to track the phone to the Roosevelt Hotel and the child — who also had on him credit cards swiped in a recent Central Park robbery.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell called the Central Park crime surge a “migrant robbery pattern.”
“That’s what we’re combatting,” Chell said at a recent news conference. “We think they’re responsible for most of them if not all.”
The victim in the Central Park mugging was bruised but declined medical attention.
Police said the Aug. 11 robbery was reported before the NYPD clamped down on an uptick in robberies in the park this year with a surge of dozens of cops on foot, in cars and on horseback patrolling the grounds. Cops are also using drones to respond to 911 calls in the park.
The increased patrolling had its desired effect: Between Aug. 19 and Aug. 25, the first full week of the surge, only one robbery occurred in Central Park, according to police statistics.
“It’s almost disappeared,” Chell said Sunday on WPIX. “We haven’t had any robberies. Wolf pack robberies as they’ve been described.”
After being alerted a credit card belonging to the victim in the Aug. 11 mugging was used at a nearby store, cops recovered surveillance footage of the three suspects buying drinks. All three teens are described as Hispanic with slim builds. The teens were in T-shirts and shorts and carried cross body bags.
Anyone with information regarding their whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.