Three beasts hit a Manhattan newsstand owner in the afternoon in an afternoon robbery, leaving him “covered in blood” and robbing him of lottery tickets and cash, the owner said.
Masked men burst into Abul Hossein’s Upper East Side newsstand around 2:30 p.m. and peppered the unassuming 67-year-old owner with punches.
“I was eating lunch when they came in and just started beating me,” Hossein told the Post. “They hit me over and over again in the head.
“There was no time to fight back,” he added. “I didn’t say anything to them. I just yelled, ‘Help, help!’
The crew stole about $3,000 in cash (most of that week’s lottery proceeds) and a roll of scratch cards, but Hossein said he had no chance to determine how much they were worth.
Police said Hossein was “covered in blood” after the attack and was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital in stable condition with cuts to his head.
He spent about five hours at the hospital and returned to the newsstand at 79th Street and 1st Avenue Wednesday morning.
“Yesterday, it was a bloody mess in here,” Hossein said, gesturing inside the newsstand.
He spent the day cleaning the newsstand, but on Thursday there was still blood on the walls and on Hossein’s document binder, he said.
Hossein told the Post that he had never worried about closing the newsstand door behind him, but after going through the traumatic ordeal he would make sure to do so.
The father of three, who immigrated to New York from Bangladesh 21 years ago, breaks down in tears when asked how he feels.
“I feel… very upset,” he said. “I’ve been here for seven years and I’ve never been attacked.”
John Chess, a doorman at a nearby building, told the Post he had known Mr. Hossein since he owned a newsstand.
“He’s a good guy. A normal guy,” Chess said, adding that Hossein drinks coffee almost every morning because he can’t leave his post.
“They robbed him. They opened his door, went inside, beat him and took all his money and lottery tickets,” Chess said.
He added that the violent crime was “unusual for this area.” “I’ve worked here for 21 years, but most of the time he happens around 86th Street. Usually not here.”
Police said no arrests had been made in connection with the robbery by Thursday.
