Jason Spratt, owner of the Jar Bar. Photo: Shane O’Brien
Oct. 16, 2024 By Shane O’Brien
A Woodside bar owner was left in a coma for four days after being brutally attacked by three assailants while walking along 48th Avenue in broad daylight last month.
Jason Spratt, who has owned the Jar Bar at 45-06 48th Ave. for the past ten years, was walking home with $17,500 in cash concealed in a bag on the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 29, when he was attacked from behind by three men.
The men made off with the cash Spratt was carrying, while a separate break-in at the Jar Bar on Oct. 3 saw an estimated sum of around $13,000 stolen from the bar.
Spratt said one of the men hit him in the back of the head with what he believes was a garden hoe during the attack on Sept. 29, causing him to fall to the ground. He said one of the attackers pinned his arms to the ground while the other two men kicked him in the head relentlessly.
Spratt had been carrying the cash from the bar to his apartment ahead of a bank drop on Monday. He believed it had been safe to transport the money because it was in broad daylight and it was just a few blocks from the bar to his apartment.
“It was stupid of me,” Spratt said. “I never want to carry that much cash again.”
Spratt said he managed to fend off two of his attackers while a third man made off with the cash. Spratt later struggled back to his apartment building and fell unconscious before reaching his flat and was subsequently transported to Elmhurst Hospital, where he remained in a coma until early in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 3.
“Somebody was standing on my arm, so I couldn’t get up,” Spratt said. “And then two fellas were kicking the side of my head like they were kicking field goals.”
“Why didn’t they just knock me out and lift the bag of money? Why’d they try and beat me to death?”
A scar on the back of Spratt’s head following last month’s attack. Spratt believes the markings indicate a garden instrument. Photo: Shane O’Brien
Spratt said he awoke from the coma early in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 3, adding that he discharged himself from Elmhurst Hospital two days later on Saturday, Oct. 5.
He immediately returned to his bar, where he discovered that someone had broken the padlock at the Jar Bar’s entrance at around 5 a.m. on Oct. 3 and stolen between $10,000 and $14,000, taking the bar’s total losses to around $30,000 in the space of four days.
“I got hit twice in the same week,” Spratt said. “I don’t have $30,000. I’m running a small business over here, and it’s a real kick in the teeth.
“It’s hard lines that I have to tell my landlord that I can’t pay the rent this month. He’s very sympathetic and I’ll have the money next month, but I took the last of my life savings out of my personal account to help keep the business afloat.”
Spratt has undergone several CT scans and MRIs since last month’s attack and said doctors have told him that he has bleeding on three different parts of his brain as a result of the head trauma. He also been suffering with an almost-constant ringing in his ears and suspects that he had burst an eardrum.
The incident has been especially traumatic for Spratt’s mother Bibi, who flew out to New York from her native Ireland several days after the attack.
Spratt, who moved to New York from Ireland 19 years ago, communicated with his mother on a daily basis. The attack brought a sudden halt to that daily communication, leaving Bibi fraught with worry on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
She said she desperately sought answers about her son, ringing hospitals across the city and eventually flying from Ireland on Thursday at around the same time that Spratt was coming out of a coma.
Bibi said the anxiety she experienced while searching for answers was the worst thing she has ever experienced, stating that it trumped the death of her sister and nephew.
“Not knowing where my son was, was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through,” Bibi said.
Spratt, meanwhile, has reported the incidents to the NYPD and commended officers in the 108th Precinct but said he has accepted that he will probably never see the stolen money again. However, he has asked local residents to support the Jar Bar by stopping in for a drink.
“I would just like to ask the community for their continued support and I believe I’ll get through this,” Spratt said. “It’s a lot of money to lose, but I have good relations with my landlord and a good relationship with my vendors.”
Photo: Shane O’Brien
“I would hate to see this place closing. This place has been open since 1927, and it’s one of the oldest continuously operating bars in the neighborhood. I’m the seventh owner, and I don’t want to be the guy to see it go to the wall.”
Spratt said he would love to be able to continue to host free barbecues at the Jar Bar for members of the local community as well as the bar’s annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
“I can’t give back if I (the business) can’t survive.”
Spratt said he believes the neighborhood has become more dangerous in recent years, adding that people have to watch their backs when they walk alone.
“I’m disgusted that this kind of crap is going on in our neighborhood,” Spratt said. “This happened to me in broad daylight. So what does that say about the fabric of our society?”
The NYPD has confirmed that its investigations into the incident are ongoing and that there is no suspect description at this time.
Anyone wishing to support Jar Bar can stop by for a drink between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 12 noon until 3 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
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