Group on bicycles stealing headphones right off people's heads throughout Manhattan
MANHATTAN (WABC) -- Police are searching for a group of bicycle riders wanted for stealing headphones from people's heads throughout Manhattan.
The thefts all took place on Monday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, between 4:15 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The group rode up to their victims on bicycles and then grabbed headphones right off of them before riding off, investigators said.
The thefts started in the West Village and then spread to Greenwich Village, Central Park, Harlem, and the Upper East Side.
There were seven thefts reported in this crime spree.
Eyewitness News spoke exclusively with one of the victims.
"I remember yelling and screaming after it happened cause my brain was still trying to process what had happened," Emily Rella said.
Rella was wearing headphones that cost roughly $600, which were a Christmas gift from her dad.
She was walking along Jane Street in the West Village around 4 p.m. when she says two men on bikes pulled up.
"There were two men in black hoods that stopped on the sidewalk for me, so I couldn't step off the sidewalk and as that happened another one came behind me and grabbed my headphones off my head from behind," Rella said.
It didn't end there.
"He zoomed on past me, those two took off and about 20 seconds later, three more people came on bikes and came flowing through," Rella said.
She is convinced that the second group was backup in case anything went wrong.
Police are now looking for the suspects who they say carried out copycat robberies that same day in Manhattan over the course roughly three hours.
Over-ear, noise-canceling headphones are popular targets.
Carson, 11, visiting with his family from Indiana, just got a pair in New York yesterday.
"I said we should wait to get them when we get home because I know things happen in the city, pick pockets and stuff," parent Emily Schramm said.
Sources told Eyewitness News, a 14-year-old is in custody, but detectives are looking for at least five more suspects.
"You're really affecting someone's psyche and ability to function and that's the worst part," Rella said.
Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, in Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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