Scooter-Riding Thief Drags Woman Down UES Sidewalk, Police Say

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The NYPD is hunting a scooter-riding robber who dragged an elderly woman down an Upper East Side sidewalk after grabbing her bag and accelerating down the street, police said.

An 86-year-old woman was waiting at the corner of First Avenue and East 64th Street on Saturday, May 4 when the robber approached her while riding an electric scooter, police said. The robber drove up to the woman slowly, grabbed her bag and then sped down the street, police said. The woman was holding on to her bag, so she was dragged down the sidewalk until she was forced to let go.

EMS took the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian Cornell for injuries to her arm, police said.

The robber was tied to another attempted robbery in Harlem a few days later, police said. On Monday, May 6, the thief rode his scooter up to a 55-year-old man getting out of his car on West 139th Street and Seventh Avenue and slapped the man's keys out of his hand, police said. The robber sped away from the scene on his scooter without any of the man's belongings, police said.

Police did not have a physical description of the scooter-riding thief, but said he wears a distinctive yellow helmet.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).