A woman accused of stealing cash from a young boy’s hand and then slapping his mother inside a Bronx bodega is still on the loose, leaving residents outraged that officers haven’t apprehended her.
“She is still walking around here. “I saw her about two days ago,” a worker at Richard’s Fruits and Vegetables told The Post on Sunday.
“She ran away [after the attack], but I live in the neighborhood, and I saw her walking around [again] before I came to work,” she told me.
The suspect was caught on tape wearing a pink wig as she peeked her head in the entrance of the little Jerome Avenue market on September 24 and confronted the 7-year-old boy, who was holding a few dollars in cash.
She grabbed the money and turned to leave, but she ran into the boy’s 38-year-old mother as she pushed another little child in a stroller. The perpetrator then struck the stunned mother in the face and fled.
Erick Vidals, co-owner of Richard’s Fruits and Vegetables, told The Post he recognized the suspect from the neighborhood and that, despite the theft and attack, she is still around.
He saw her without a wig on Saturday and hurried to the phone to contact the police, but they arrived too late, he added.
“She was situated on a block,” Vidals explained. “She walked back and forth in front of my store for about 5 minutes.”
“I dialed 911, and several others also made the same call.” I informed them that I had located the woman who had stolen the money from the young child. They asked about her skin tone, clothing, and hair color. “There are minor details that they could overlook and simply send the cops,” he explained.
The police arrived approximately 15 to 20 minutes later. The first question they asked was where she was. “I told them she had left.”
Vidals claimed he could only guide cops in the direction where the perp was last seen walking. “They were going to go that way to see if they saw her,” he claimed.
“That is it. They never returned. “If they had arrived right away, they would have caught her.”
The NYPD reported that they placed wanted posters featuring the suspect’s face throughout the neighborhood on Sunday.
