Moped Mugging Outside Hotel Chelsea, Latest in String of Unsolved Upscale Crimes
Two men robbed a woman at knifepoint on October 4th, then fled on a moped. It’s the latest in a string of largely unsolved moped crimes that have plagued the city over the past year and a half that have targeted victims’ airpods, gold chains and expensive watches.
| 07 Oct 2024 | 07:09
A woman was tackled to the ground and robbed at knifepoint right outside the Chelsea Hotel, police said. (
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Police are still seeking a moped maniac who caused the death of a man after he pushed a victim who fell backwards and cracked his skull in Hell’s Kitchen. The victim later died. That suspect remains at large. (
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Police say a two-man team of moped robbers last year were stealing expensive Airpods from victims’ heads in a crime spree from midtown to downtown Manhattan. (
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A woman was robbed at knifepoint by two men at around 3:26 p.m. on Friday, October 4th, at 222 West 23rd Street outside the iconic Hotel Chelsea.
Two men tackled the victim, pulled out a knife, and removed a chain from around her neck, cops said. The suspects were reported to be dressed all in black. Police noted one of the men was wearing red sneakers. After they robbed the woman, they fled the scene on a moped, which had no license plate on it. They drove the moped east down West 23rd Street. The investigation is still ongoing at this time.
The woman was not taken to the hospital, but was instead treated on site by Emergency Services.
This heist on two wheels comes after a months-long series of similar incidents throughout Manhattan. In June, the New York Post reported that the NYPD was cracking down on these robberies, which included seizing 39 mopeds. Last year, the NYPD seized 42,000 illegal electric vehicles, Chelsea News reported, and in July the City Council introduced a new set of rules, which included requiring e-bike users for the first time to register their vehicles at the time of purchase.
Unlike autos, people who had purchased the motorized e-bikes were allowed to leave the store after purchasing the vehicle with a requirment to register. The new law changed that, but there are still a rash of unregistered vehicles on the streets of New York.
It is unclear whether the Chelsea moped snatch and grabs is related to the summer incidents.
The New York Times on July 5 reported that two man teams on mopeds had been targeting customers at tony dining establishments in northern Brooklyn and Manhattan and robbing them of expensive jewelry.
In one heist in Greenwich Village in June, outside Carbone, an upscale Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village that advertises “any guest who does not appear sufficiently well-presented may be refused entry” two men robbed an expensive Patek Philippe watch valued at $100,000 at gunpoint from a 39-year-old man. The suspect was never caught.
Sometimes, the crimes have turned deadly. Police are still seeking a maniacal moped driver who assaulted two men at 43rd St. and 9th Ave. at around 2:40 a.m. on July 23. One of the victims, 38-year-old German immigrant Florian Oltmann, later died of his injuries. Their moped-propelled assailant remains at large.
In that incident, olice say that the moped operator who was driving southbound on the sidewalk bumped into a 56-year-old man, and that a verbal dispute followed. The moped driver briefly drove away, before deciding to circle back and punching the 56-year-old in the face, knocking him out.
Oltman was listed initially listed in critical condition in Bellevue Hospital but on July 29, cops announced Oltmann had died of his injuries.
The 56-year-old attack victim survived after being rushed by EMS to Mt. Sinai West.
Early last year, a string of moped riding thieves across Manhattan were reportedly swiping airpods from the heads of victims in robberies that stretched from the Upper East Side to Greenwich Village and Downtown Manhattan.
Cops received a radio call about the robbery outside the Chelsea Hotel while it was still in progress but suspects had fled the scene when cops arrived minutes later.
The suspects in such crimes are difficult to catch, in part because they tend to make getaways by driving on sidewalks or going the wrong way down one way streets.
Police could not say if the latest crime had any connection with the earlier incidents.