By The newspaper
08 Jun 2024, 11:11 AM EDT
A 41-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint of a bag filled with $250,000 in cash outside a hotel at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York.
The unidentified victim was outside the LaGuardia Airport Marriott hotel on Ditmars Blvd. around 6 pm on Thursday when the gunman approached him. The suspect showed his gun and stole the victim’s purse, which was full of cash, all in $100 dollar bills, he detailed. DailyNews.
Investigators believe the robbery was planned and that the money was intended for a poker tournament the victim was heading to later that night, police sources said yesterday. But detectives were also investigating a second theory that the robbery happened because the man had taken the money to buy a Mercedes Benz.
In recent months, several alleged car sales arranged through social networks have ended in robbery and even homicides in plain light in New York. Authorities say it is a growing “crime of opportunity” that can be fought with common sense. They recommend anyone making a deal to buy or sell a car meet in a safe, public location, such as a police station parking lot.
“Don’t carry cash, try to use an online platform to make the transaction financially,” Captain Spiro Papavlasopoulos of the NYPD’s Crime Prevention Division recommended last month.
Thursday’s armed robber fled with the loot in a silver Mercedes Benz. No arrests have been made or suspects identified. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the website crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
In 2023, Adeed Fayaz, a young NYPD officer and father of two children, died after spending almost three days seriously hospitalized after being shot in the head while off duty in Brooklyn (NYC) during a transaction arranged through FacebookMarketplace.
In October 2022, a pair of teenagers from The Bronx (NYC) launched a wave of kidnappings and car thefts using the Facebook Marketplace shopping portal, as they confessed to the FBI. In May 2022, young Jefferson Hernández was shot to death during a motorcycle sale in the Bronx also arranged through that platform.