Police say a group of rock-throwing teenagers punched a well-meaning older man on Monday morning after he agreed to give them a dollar, then stole $200 from the New Yorker about a block from his home.
According to police and the victim, Rafael Diaz, 73, was walking home on East 12th Street near Avenue A around 8:50 a.m. when he was approached by as many as six children, including a teenage girl, who feigned innocence and demanded $1.
“Girl [was] Sweet, lovely, dress[ed] “Good, normal,” Diaz said.[She said]”They're like, 'Oh, give me a dollar,' and I'm like, 'OK, I'll give you a dollar,' and they're like, 'Oh, he's got money, let's hit him.'”
The relentless assailants chased Diaz for half a block, hurling rocks and sticks at him, until the victim fled to a nearby restaurant for cover and begged people inside to call 911.
But “nobody did anything.” Police and the victim said officers chased him, someone tackled him to the ground, and one of the suspects punched him three times.
During the scuffle, one of the robbers allegedly took Diaz's wallet from his pocket.
“I said, 'My wallet, my wallet!' And I tried to run away, but everybody [was] “It was going too fast, so they dumped it on the road.”
“They run like rabbits!” he said of the crew members, believed to be 15 or 16 years old, who are still at large.
He soon realized that not only was $200 missing from his wallet, but his debit and welfare cards were also missing.
The elderly man was taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Diaz said she has lived in the area for 12 years, since she was 15, as well as other parts of New York, including the Bronx, and that nothing like this has ever happened to her before.
But the attack hasn't stopped him from roaming the city he calls home.
“No, it's like, you get angry, you just have to get over it,” he said. “It's not easy. You have five or six guys coming at you, going against you. You're alone.”
“I [was] “I'm really frustrated and really angry,” he added. “I [in] To her house. She went to the hospital to calm me down. She said, “Rafael, stay here. Don't go out, stay here.” [here] Because you're angry. You want to find them, right?”
No arrests were immediately made in the broad daylight robbery.
