Brooklyn Men Robbed Businesses On Upper East, West Sides, Police Say

NEW YORK CITY — Two Brooklyn men were arrested for their involvement in at least seven robberies that occurred at businesses and restaurants on the Upper West and East Side, police told Patch.

Charles Ross, 19, and Jermaine Drummond, 21, will face charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal mischief for their roles in the robberies, police told Patch. Several of the alleged thieves' accomplices are still at large, police said.

The two men and their partners in crime would act like customers of a business or ask to use the bathroom before heading to restricted areas to steal items from employees as they worked their shifts, police told Patch.

The robbery spree started on March 30, when the group of men entered Shalel Lounge on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 70th Street, police said. A 36 year-old man at the lounge discovered that his wallet was missing and received a notification that somebody had tried to charge his debit card at a nearby McDonalds. When the man went to the McDonalds he confronted a man trying to use his card, but the man fled the restaurant, police said.

Two months later the robbers struck again, this time hitting two business on the Upper East Side, police told Patch. On the night of May 30, the men posed as customers at Daisy Diner and San Matteo Pizza — both located on Second Avenue — and rummaged through employee's belongings. The men made out with a credit card and approximately $15 in cash that night, police said.

One June 20, the men asked an employee at City Brows on West 81st Street and Broadway to use the bathroom, police said. While the employee was distracted one of the men stole her purse — which contained credit cards and $400 cash — from behind the business' counter, police told Patch.

The three most recent robberies all occurred on the Upper East Side. On July 23 the men stole $425 from an employee at the Silver Star Diner on Second Avenue and $70 and credit cards from an employees only room at Le Botaniste on Lexington Avenue, police told Patch.

Two nights later six men went to The Seamstress, a bar on East 75th Street and First Avenue and attempted to steal an 18-year-old woman's backpack, police said. Ross and Drummond were arrested while trying to flee the bar, police said.

Photo by Patch