Not even little kids on scooters are safe from the Big Apple’s crime
wave — as a 6-year-old Brooklyn boy found out when his ride was swiped
by a masked bandit, cops said Friday.
The heartless robber targeted the tyke while the child was zipping
around near his home in Borough Park about 10 p.m. Wednesday, police
said.
The e-scooter belonged to the little boy’s special-needs brother, their father told The Post.
“There is no humanity,’’ said neighbor Ruhul Amin, a cabbie. “I don’t know who would do this. He is a sick guy.’’
The thief had walked up to the little boy in front of 3528 12th Ave.
and asked, “Where is your mommy?” before pushing the child off the
scooter, cops said.
The punk then grabbed the scooter and took off, police said.
The shaken little boy ran to an older sister who was nearby and told her what happened, and their parents later called the NYPD.
A neighborhood surveillance camera captured the boy riding the
scooter before the heist — and the unidentified robber on it afterward,
the dad said. Both the boy and his sister identified the crook in the
video, he said.
“At the police station, he was a little afraid,” the father said of his son. “We got him to say a few words.”
The boy, a second-grader who turns 7 next week, is so traumatized
about what happened that he hasn’t been to school since and is terrified
of ever riding a scooter again, his dad added.
“We are working on it,” the father said. “We are going to have
therapy for him, for sure. We are not going to let him fall behind.”
The father — a rabbinical student with 15 kids — said he bought
the $500 scooter three weeks ago for one of the boy’s older brothers,
who has special needs and is attending summer camp.
“When he comes back, I have to replace it,” the dad said.
But the father said he didn’t have enough money to buy another scooter.
“I wish someone could help me.. … My child needs it. That’s what he uses to get around,’’ the dad said.
The father appealed to the thief to “bring it back, no questions asked.
“Turn the scooter back, I’m not going to press any charges,” he said.
“But if the police catches you, it’s going to be worse.”
The suspect is believed to be in his late 20s and was wearing a dark
gray shirt, light gray shorts and gray sneakers at the time of the
robbery, cops said.
The disturbing incident comes amid a terrifying uptick in crime in the city.
The scooter theft occurred just weeks after another robber snatched a
gold chain from around the neck of a 4-year-old boy inside a Washington
Heights apartment complex.
The tiny victim, who was with his grandmother at the time, was left with a minor cut on his neck from the June 12 robbery.
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