Two robbers on motorcycles robbed two bar-goers in Brooklyn at gunpoint, the latest in a string of crimes centered around getaway bikes, police and victims said Friday.
Sources say the 32-year-old actress and her 29-year-old friend were strolling from Twins Lounge in Greenpoint to Ponyboy Bar around 11.20pm on Thursday when a man wearing a ski mask jumped off the back of a moped and pulled a gun from his hip.
Officers and the victim said the man pointed the weapon at the 29-year-old man’s chest and demanded his watch, then snatched the 32-year-old man’s purse.
The suspect then re-mounted on his moped and the driver sped off down Manhattan Street near Norman Street.
“It was pretty fast but it obviously shook me a lot. I’ve lived in the area for over seven years and I’ve never felt unsafe,” said the 32-year-old victim, who asked not to be named out of fear for his safety.
She grew up in Venezuela and said she could tell the bandits were from her home country “by their accent.”
“It’s really unusual that something like this would happen here,” she said.
“My family left Venezuela because there was so much crime there and we didn’t want to grow up in such an unsafe environment.”
The incident comes after two thieves on mopeds stormed into Birds of a Feather, a popular Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg, and robbed three customers at gunpoint earlier this week.
A robber held a gun to a Canadian man’s head in the heart of Greenwich Village on Wednesday, stole his Rolex watch worth $40,000, then fled on a moped.
On June 18, police said two armed robbers on mopeds stole a man’s watch worth $100,000 outside the Manhattan hotspot Carbone.
Police said Friday that the Greenpoint robbery does not appear to be related to previous moped thefts.
The 29-year-old victim, who asked not to be named, said he was likely targeted because the attacker noticed his expensive watch.
“I don’t think it was a coincidence,” he said.
“Either they saw me from afar wearing a very expensive watch, or someone told them.”
The 32-year-old victim said he eventually used the Find My iPhone app to track down the phone to the bar where the attacker had thrown it, and recovered it.
She said the police officer to whom she reported the crime later told her they were seeing an increase in robberies targeting mopeds.
“They were like, oh, unfortunately, it’s happening,” she said.
Officers took her out into the neighborhood to search for the robbers, she said.
Returning to the police station, she asked the officers for advice.
“[I asked] “If you had a kid living in this neighborhood, what would you say?” she said.
“And one of them literally said, ‘Get out of New York.'”
