MJP –
A woman suspected of snatching cash from a little boy’s hand and then slapping his mother at a Bronx bodega is still hanging around the block, leaving locals fuming that cops haven’t cuffed her yet.
“She’s still walking around here. I saw her like two days ago,” a worker at Richard’s Fruit and Vegetables told The Post on Sunday.
“She ran away [after the attack], but I live in the neighborhood, and I saw her walking around [again] before I came to work,” she added.
The suspect was caught on camera sporting a pink wig as she poked her head in the door of the small Jerome Avenue market on Sept. 24 and accosted the 7-year-old boy, who had a few dollars cash in his hand.
She snatched the money and turned to leave but walked into the boy’s 38-year-old mother as the mom pushed another young child in a stroller. The suspect then smacked the shocked mom in the face and took off.
Erick Vidals — co-owner of Richard’s Fruit’s and Vegetables — told The Post he also recognized the suspect from the neighborhood and that despite the theft and assault, she’s still lingering around.
He saw her as recently as Saturday, sans wig, and rushed to the phone to call the police, but they came too late, he said.
“She was on the block. She walked back and forth in front of my store for maybe 5 minutes,” Vidals said.
Muggers Shoot 57-Year-Old Woman Dead in Lower East Side Cell Phone Robbery
“I called 911 — a few of us called. I told them I got the lady who snatched the money from the little kid here. They were asking me what is the color of her skin, what kind of clothes she got on, what color is her hair … little details that they could skip and just send the cops,” he said.
“The police showed up like 15, 20 minutes later. The first thing they asked was where she at. I told them she left.”
Vidals said he could only point cops in the direction that the perp was last seen walking. They told him “they were gonna go that way to see if they see her,” he said.
“That’s it. They never came back. If they had showed up right away, they would have caught her.”
The NYPD told The Post that posters with the suspect’s face were being posted around the neighborhood as of Sunday.
