By Maria Rocha-Buschel
Police arrested three teenagers for robbing a taxi driver in Kips Bay near First Avenue and East 28th Street early last Tuesday morning.
The victim told police that he picked up one of the suspects in his cab at Lorimer Street and Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn just before 1 a.m. on August 14 and the passenger asked to be dropped off at East 24th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan.
When the driver arrived at the intersection the suspect had requested, the teen reportedly asked him to go to East 28th Street. When they got to the second location, the suspect reportedly tried using three different credit cards to pay for the ride but the payments wouldn’t go through.
When the teen wasn’t able to pay for the ride, he reportedly yelled out to other individuals who surrounded the cab and tried to open the doors. Another one of the teens that was arrested reportedly hit the driver in the head with a water bottle multiple times and another suspect allegedly opened the passenger side door and stole cash from the center console of the car.
When police searched the area shortly after, four teenagers were stopped inside Asser Levy Playground near the FDR and East 25th Street when the park was closed.
Police said that the victim identified two of the teenagers who were subsequently arrested. Two other teens who were in the park reportedly admitted on their own that they were there during the robbery, but the arrest of one of the four teens was later voided. Police did not have further information about the reason.
When the teen who was in the cab was searched, police found that he was in possession of three credit cards that didn’t have his name, and the suspect never paid for the cab ride. Another one of the suspects was charged with theft of services and possession of stolen property. Another suspect was charged with petit larceny and an unclassified parks violation.