Moped-Mounted Purse Snatchers Rob 10 Women On The Upper East Side

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A pair of moped-riding purse snatchers behind a Sunday afternoon Upper East Side purse snatch have targeted at least 21 other women in similar midday attacks across Manhattan during October, police said.

The brazen attacks all took place between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., according to police.

Pedestrians in Midtown, the East Village and Chelsea were all targeted, but nearly half of their victims were walking on the streets of the Upper East Side.

Over three days, 10 women were attacked by the moped crooks on the Upper East Side, with some of the incidents resulting in injuries, police said.

The two men are also most likely behind all of the reported robberies in the neighborhood over the most recent week covered by NYPD crime statistics, data shows, fueling a mini crime wave in the neighborhood.

During a four-hour period in the middle of the day on Oct. 18, the duo attacked six people on the Upper East Side, according to police, and successfully stole four purses.

Three of the victims were injured, with one person ending up in the hospital for minor injuries, officials said.

The victim's ages ranged between 24 and 73-years-old, police said, and mostly took place across Lenox Hill, from Park to First avenues.

Two more attacks occurred on Oct. 20 just minutes apart: the duo stole a purse from a 45-year-old woman on East 72nd Street near Lexington Avenue at 3:10 p.m. and then a 50-year-old woman near East 95th Street and First Avenue at around 3:30 p.m., according to police.

Most recently, the thieves stole a purse from a 35-year-old woman at around 1:30 p.m. on East 87th Street and Fifth Avenue, according to police.

According to crime statistics, there were only nine reported robberies in the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct during the week of Oct. 16 - Oct. 22, likely all the work of the moped menaces.

Despite their activities, reported robberies are still down by 23 percent compared with the same 28-day period last year, and down by nearly 16 percent year-to-date.

If the two men had somehow decided against their Upper East Side crime spree, those numbers would instead show a 61 percent drop in reported robberies over the same 28-day period last year, and a 20 percent drop year-to-date over 2022.

Police released images of two people they say are connected to the incidents, showing two men on a black and also a blue moped.

Officials added that one of the men was most recently seen wearing a black jacket with fur on the hood.

Anyone with information in regard to 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).