A group of young children has been causing chaos at an Upper West Side bar, and the owner recently revealed that he was threatened by one of the kids. This news comes as yet another business owner in Manhattan has reported falling victim to the same gang of thieving children. As per reports , the situation is becoming more and more concerning for local business owners.
While Jacob Rabinowitz, the proprietor of the Amsterdam Ale House, was present at his establishment on West 76th Street on a Saturday night, he noticed one of the children who had robbed his customers in February begging for money outside the bar.
According to The Post, Rabinowitz shared that he had pursued the young boy and subsequently informed other neighboring businesses about the incident. However, things took a turn for the worse when the child purportedly issued a threat towards Rabinowitz.
On Sunday, Rabinowitz reminisced about the time a young child threatened to beat him up, saying, “He said he was going to beat my ass. It was this little kid telling me that.”
As per reports, when the pub owner cautioned the child and threatened to call the police, the boy confidently retorted by saying, “The police can’t arrest me, I’m just a kid.”
According to an exclusive report by The Post on Saturday, a group of young robbers, who look no older than 10 and have chubby cheeks, have been targeting businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn for several months now. As per the accounts of workers and owners, these young crooks started by snatching money from unattended bags and have now moved on to stealing cash from open safes.
According to the staff at The Stone Street Tavern located in the Financial District, they too have fallen prey to the group of young thieves. This incident occurred on Sunday and left the workers feeling victimized.
According to Raul Gomez, a 24-year-old bartender at the tavern, one of the boys – who he estimated to be around seven or eight years old – took advantage of a moment of carelessness by a waitress and snatched her unattended purse. Later that same afternoon, the boy emptied the contents of the purse in the bathroom.
According to The Post, Gomez stated that they were simply sharing their experience and discovered that several other establishments on the same street had been targeted in the exact same way.
According to the manager of Stone Street Tavern, the boy who was caught on camera seemed to be associated with the group that reportedly targeted Rabinowitz’s other businesses, such as Lexington Publick in East Harlem, as reported by The Post.
It all started eight months ago when two mischievous children began causing chaos at the Amsterdam Ale House by grabbing whatever they could get their hands on from unattended bags.
According to the manager, Whitney Kaufman, the situation escalated quickly in February when the duo took food from a table, pushed a patron, and brandished a knife.
According to authorities, on August 13th, a youthful thief struck again at Upside on Amsterdam, located at West 89th Street in the Upper West Side. The culprit managed to pilfer $600 in cash from an unlocked safe.
According to the manager of Lexington Publick, a small-time criminal managed to steal approximately $700 in petty cash from the establishment’s safe last Monday evening at around 8:30 p.m. The incident occurred at the bar’s location on Lexington Avenue and East 97th Street.
According to multiple bar workers in Manhattan, it seems that the same group of children may be involved in several incidents, although this cannot be confirmed.
According to an anonymous manager from Stone Street Tavern, the children who were selling chocolate initially appeared to be just like any other children accompanied by their mothers.
As innocent as panhandling may seem, things took a dark turn when the groups started frequenting the local bars. Shockingly, reports suggest that some of the mothers even allowed their young children to wander around unsupervised.
According to the manager, the young men would feign the need to visit the bathroom located downstairs. They were well aware that this was where the company offices and employee-only rooms were situated. Their main objective was to target the workers’ bags, purses, coats, wallets, or any other valuable items that they could lay their hands on.
According to his statement, they have been targeting multiple locations in a single day. As an example, he mentioned the day when they stole a purse from the Stone Street Tavern, revealing that they had already hit two other places earlier that same day.
According to the manager, the current situation is “extremely disheartening.” Despite his employees asking the children to leave, they persist in returning, oftentimes in as little as 20 minutes.
Rabinowitz expressed his frustration over the seeming pointlessness of attempting to prevent these juvenile delinquents from wreaking havoc. He recounted a conversation he had with an officer who informed him that there was nothing law enforcement could do when he informed them of the child’s presence outside his establishment.
As expressed by a small business owner, the ongoing problem of petty theft is causing overwhelming frustration. Despite efforts to prevent theft, it seems impossible to keep them at bay. The lack of action being taken to address the issue only adds to the frustration felt by these business owners.
According to a spokeswoman from the police department, they are currently investigating two safe thefts to determine if there is a larger pattern across the city.
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