Police are looking for two men who allegedly posed as car salesmen online and then robbed and assaulted the people who came to buy vehicles from them in the Bronx and Queens, officials said Wednesday.
In a string of incidents from last December to last week, the suspects arranged to sell cars to victims through Facebook Marketplace, according to police. One of the men operated under the profile name Akeem Brown, while the other went by George Smith.
NYPD officials said the suspects met up with the would-be buyers, then threatened them with weapons, forcing them to hand over valuables like cellphones and thousands of dollars of cash they’d brought for the planned transactions.
In one incident in Eastchester on March 10, they allegedly displayed a stick with nails to intimidate a 36-year-old man before stealing $3,000 in cash from his cup holder, police said.
In another incident in Wakefield on April 8, the suspects teamed up with a third man, flashing a gun and striking a 23-year-old man in the head with a metal bat. They ran off with $10,000, while the victim was treated by EMS on the scene, according to the NYPD.
Police said the suspects also stole a car from a woman who left it running near Gleason Ave and Powell Ave near the Cross Bronx Expressway, and separately stole a license plate off a car parked near an office building on Eastchester Road near Basset Ave.
Most of the incidents took place during daylight hours, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eight out of nine incidents reported to police took place in Bronx neighborhoods, with just one of the robberies reported in Pomonok, Queens.
The suspects are depicted in NYPD photos wearing gray or black hoodies, gray or black sweatpants, black or blue face masks and black and white sneakers.
Police asked anyone with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
