Colorful Underwear Tips Feds Off To Accused Queens Smoke Shop Swiper

QUEENS, NY - A recognizable pair of multicolored underwear tipped federal officials off to a man now accused of robbing a Queens smoke shop last year.

Fathy Hussein, 30, is accused of being one of three masked robbers who swiped from the 135-20 109th Ave. shop around 6 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2022, federal prosecutors said. He was arrested on federal robbery charges at his Queens home in Ozone Park Wednesday.

Two masked suspects threatened staff and customers with guns, including an assault-style rifle, during the stick-up, federal officials said, while Hussein reportedly swiped $3,000 in cash from the register. A bag of cash that wasn’t stored inside the register, $1,000 worth of smoking paraphernalia and store employee’s cell phones were also taken during the heist.

The trio later fled in a black Mazda, prosecutors said. The two other assailants, one of whom donned a “Scream” mask during the incident, are still at large.

About a week after the robbery, an anonymous tipster told police the trio tried to sell the merchandise near 129th Street and Liberty Avenue in Queens; the same tipster provided police with Hussin’s Instagram handle, feds said.

It was only when federal officials reviewed surveillance footage from the same intersection and the smoke shop incident that Hussein’s multicolored underwear - complete with a large white “R” and yellow “1990” design - was tied to the robbery.

Authorities were then able to match Hussein’s Instagram handle to photographs in police databases from his prior arrests. Notably, Hussein is accused of participating in the robbery while still on probation for a 2021 weapons charge, prosecutors said.

Cell phone data associated with a phone used by Hussain also tied him to the area of the tobacco shop around the time of the robbery, and in areas where surveillance footage captured him without his mask, federal authorities said.

Hussein was released Wednesday on $75,000 bail and home confinement, per the New York Daily News, though prosecutors petitioned the state to keep him detained due to his past criminal history and flight risk.