Cops are looking for this Crocs-wearing creep who allegedly subjected two women to forcible touching in Astoria after warning them that they had a spider crawling on them. NYPD
June 9, 2025 By Bill Parry
Police from the 114th Precinct in Astoria are looking for a suspect who groped two women about a half-hour apart after warning them he saw a spider crawling on them on the night of Monday, June 2.
The first incident occurred at Astoria Boulevard and 22nd Street at around 10:50 p.m., when a 25-year-old woman was approached by a stranger who told her she had a spider on her and proceeded to grab and slap her on her rear end before running off in an unknown direction, police said Saturday. The victim was not injured during the encounter.
The suspect targeted another 25-year-old woman 30 minutes later, nearly a mile and a half away, as she was walking home on Newtown Avenue and 47 Street. The perpetrator warned her she had a spider on her and then grabbed her and slapped her buttocks before heading southbound on 47th Street towards Broadway.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect and described him as having a dark complexion with black hair, beard, and mustache. He wore a black winter jacket with a fur-lined hood over a black hooded sweatshirt, maroon pants, and blue Crocs.
Anyone with information regarding 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). 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 confidential.
Through June 1, the 114th Precinct has reported 261 felony assaults so far in 2025, 28 more than the 233 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 12%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Sex crimes are also on the rise in the precinct, with 37 reported so far in 2025, two more than the 35 reported at the same point in 2024, an increase of 5.7%, according to CompStat.
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