Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

A normally sleepy stretch of West End Avenue has yielded a pair of armed robberies over the past three weeks and police believe the same two gunmen are responsible for both heists.

@ReporterLeslie has the details at DNAinfo of the brazen hold-ups at West End Wine & Spirits (at 61st) and West End Super (at 64th).

The West End Wine & Spirits robbery occurred August 18th at roughly 10:15 pm. Two men entered the store wearing “baseball hats with white masks covering their noses and mouths” and held two employees on the floor at gunpoint while ordering a third to empty the register. Before fleeing with the cash, the pair also grabbed three bottles of Hennessy.

On September 3rd, police believe the same two men entered West End Super (a bodega) around 3:00 am, held four employees at gunpoint, and fled with cash and five cartons of Newports.

West End Wine & Spirits has only been open for a few months, and the robbery left the store’s manager “shaken.” Per DNA:

He opened the store on July 1 expecting to do business in a safe neighborhood surrounded by Riverside Park South and the high-end Riverside South residential development, and said he’s looking forward to serving more customers when the nearby Riverside Center development is completed in the coming years.

“It was a walk in the park for these guys,” the manager said.

“That’s what’s so upsetting. It was like going in and taking lunch money from a baby, literally. It saddens me that a couple of bad apples would destroy this up-and-coming area.”

Anyone with information about the case should contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-577-TIPS, texting TIP577 to CRIMES, or by going to NYPDCrimStoppers.com — all tips are confidential.

Filed under: Crime, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, UWS 2 Comments »
Tags: 110 West End Avenue, 33 West End Avenue, Armed Robbery, Crime, gun, gunmen, New York City, NYC, NYPD, Upper West Side, UWS, West Side Super, West Side Wine & Spirits