UWS Family Bound With Electrical Tape During Home Invasion: NYPD

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side family was bound with electrical tape and threatened with a knife during a harrowing Thursday afternoon home invasion, an NYPD spokesman said.

A 30-year-old man wearing army camouflage approached a mother and daughter in the lobby of an apartment building on West 78 Street near West End Avenue around 3 p.m., and threatened the pair with a knife, police said. The robber then forced the mother and daughter into their apartment, where he bound them with electrical tape and demanded their credit cards and other valuables, police said.

The robbery was interrupted when the apartment's third resident, the father of the family, knocked on the door, police said. The robber forced the daughter to answer the door while holding a knife at her throat, police said.

After forcing the father inside, the robber bound him with electrical tape, police said. The robber fled the apartment with credit cards and threatened harm on the family if they didn't work.

After the robber left the apartment, the daughter was able to free herself from the tape bindings and call police, police said. Officers rushed to the scene and arrested the robber on the block of the apartment building.

The three residents of the apartment did not need medical attention, police said. An NYPD spokesman did not confirm the robber's identity or say what crimes he's being charged with.

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