VIDEO: Armed Robbers Target Lower Manhattan Stores, NYPD Says

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Three robbers have been targeting Manhattan businesses at gunpoint throughout January, police said, stealing cash and other goods while terrorizing store employees.

Authorities say the men have robbed at least three businesses in Manhattan this month, using guns to steal from the stores. None of the men have been arrested.

The robbery spree began on Jan. 13, police said, when two of the men targeted the LES Mini Mart, at 127 Rivington St. The two men walked behind the store's counter while armed and took cash and cigarettes from the store, police said.

The robbery was captured in shocking video footage which shows the store's clerk moving backwards in fright as the robbers come behind the counter. The two men, who robbed the store while a third stood lookout outside, took about $600 in cash plus several boxes of cigarettes, police said.

A few days later, on Jan. 18, the men attacked a 50-year-old employee at a West Village smoke shop before robbing the business, police said. Two of the men went to the Blue Nile smoke shop at 324 Bleecker St. Inside the shop, one man took out a black gun and hit the store's employee over the head with it before shoving him to the ground, police said.

The robbers took the store employee's cellphone and $500 in cash from the register before running from the shop, police said.

Most recently, the robbers targeted a West Village shop on Jan. 20, police said. Two men went inside a shop at 37 Bedford St., where they walked behind the store's counter while armed and took cash from the register, police said. A third man stood outside as a lookout while they robbed the shop, police said.

Police are still working to identify and locate all three men, authorities said Monday.

Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPD