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Six Port Authority Cops Foil 15-Year-Old's iPhone Robbing Spree On PATH Trains
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 21, 2012
Modified Jan 21, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 21, 2012
Modified Jan 21, 2012
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A 15-year-old Jersey City boy was arrested last night in Lower Manhattan for stealing an iPhone on the PATH train in a PAPD operation that involved six plainclothes officers. PAPD spokesman Al Della Fave tells us that the boy was observed riding back and forth between Exchange Place and the World Trade Center stations for just over an hour looking for targets, and just after 8:10 p.m., he allegedly grabbed a rider's iPhone before being detained at Exchange Place. iPhone thieves: those six people on the train probably are watching you!
Della Fave notes that the boy was implicated in two other robberies, and that the PAPD cobbled together a description of him from other victims' accounts. "We advise people to just be aware when they're on the train—young people want Droids and iPhones and so you have to be careful." Indeed, half of the nearly 16,000 robberies on the MTA between January and October of last year involved electronics, not cash.
PATH trains: a bad place to steal iPhones, a not-so-terrible venue to give birth.
Tagged
crime
fancy electronics
iphone
iphone robbery
path
robbery
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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