Serial Knife-Point Robber Mugs 3 In Midtown Monday: Police

MIDTOWN, NY — A man robbed three people at knifepoint on Monday in Midtown, police said, stealing at least $15,500 in goods.

The man is suspected to be behind at least seven knifepoint robberies in Manhattan and Brooklyn since May, according to police.

Monday's robbery spree started at just after 10 a.m. at East 36th Street and Fifth Avenue, where the mugger shoved a 55-year-old man against a wall, showing him a blade and demanding the man's $550 watch, police said.

The victim suffered a cut to his abdomen and was treated at Bellevue Hospital, officials said.

A half hour later, at East 35th Street and Lexington Avenue, the robber flashed his knife at a 68-year-old man and demanded his watch and a ring, which police said he valued at around $15,000.

After a two-hour pause, the man struck again at about 12:30 on Madison Avenue near East 52nd Street, police said. The robber pressed his knife against the stomach of a 40-year-old man and snatched his necklace, officials said, and then fled without causing any injuries.

Monday's incidents are all part of a larger pattern of at least seven knife-point robs in total, police said.

Police said that the robbery spree started on May 17 in Chelsea when the man attempted, but failed, to steal a 39-year-old man's watch on West 16 Street.

Earlier in June, the man had also stolen a cell phone from a young man on West 57th Street, $12 from another young man in Chinatown and cash and a laptop from a man walking in Brooklyn Heights at 6:30 a.m., police say.

Officials released surveillance stills from his most recent robbery and his first.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).