Thief Swipes Cell Phone From Sleeping Subway Rider In Queens, Police Say

QUEENS, NY — The old saying “if you snooze, you lose” rang true for one straphanger in Queens last week after his cell phone was stolen while he dozed off on the subway.

Police said the 52-year-old man was asleep on a Manhattan-bound F train around 4:20 a.m. on April 7 when a stranger grabbed his iPhone — worth about $800 — and dashed off the train at the 169th Street station in Queens.

The thief left the station and ran off in an unknown direction along Hillside Avenue, police said.

The victim was not hurt in the incident, cops added.

The NYPD later released a surveillance image showing the suspect passing through the station’s turnstile.

The suspect was described as having a dark complexion and a goatee, and was last seen wearing a black winter jacket with a fur-lined hood, a black baseball cap and light-colored pants.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.