June 13, 2024 By Bill Parry
Police from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City and Transit District 20 are looking for an unidentified man who snatched a pricey set of headphones from the head of a woman on board a 7 train before running off the subway in Hunters Point late last month.
The grand larceny incident occurred just after 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 31 on a Flushing-bound 7 train, when the stranger forcibly removed her Apple AirPod Max headphones, which can cost as much as $750, before running off into the Vernon-Boulevard-Jackson Avenue subway station, police said. He was last seen running out of the station at 50th Avenue. The woman was not injured in the incident.
The NYPD released surveillance video on Tuesday that shows the suspect coming through the turnstile holding the stolen headphones and described him as having a light complexion, approximately 6 feet tall, with a slim build and weighing around 180 pounds. He wore a black knit hat, a black hooded sweatshirt, black sneakers and black shorts.
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 crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through June 9, the 108th Precinct has reported 306 grand larcenies so far in 2024, 15 fewer than the 321 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 4.7%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Transit crimes are also down in the 108th with 23 reported so far this year, 4 fewer than the 39 reported at the same point in 2023, a decline of 41%, according to CompStat.