Group Robs Chelsea Smoke Shop, Several Others In Manhattan: Police

CHELSEA, NY — Police are looking for a quartet of robbers who targeted a Chelsea smoke shop where they threatened a store employee with a metal pole, officials said.

The same gang of four may have also robbed at least seven other shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to police, and have stolen over $5,000 in total in the sometimes violent crimes where workers were left injured.

According to police officials, the first location the group struck was a stone on the Upper East Side on First Avenue near East 68th Street nearly two months ago.

On Oct. 22 at around 10:50 p.m., a group of four men entered the shop and took a tobacco grinder and attempted to access the cash register, police said.

A brave 25-year-old chased the group out of the store and, after a struggle, was able to hold the front door shut to keep them from coming back in, according to officials.

The worker suffered a small cut to his hands and was treated by first responders at the scene, police said.

Weeks later — and after robbing a store in Morningside Heights and another in Harlem — the same group robbed the Leaf Bar smoke shop at 269 West 23 St.., police said.

On Dec. 11 about 10 p.m., one of the men distracted a 28-year-old store employee by asking about products in the store while the three others jumped over the counter and swiped about $300 in store merchandise, police said.

When the employee tried to stop the thieves, one assailant grabbed the man and threatened him with a metal pole, police said. The men then fled the location on foot heading eastbound on West 23 Street.

No physical injuries were reported by the store employee as a result of the incident.

Anyone with information in regard to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).