Police in New York City are hunting for a woman with bright orange hair who smashed the window of a yellow taxi with a cinder block to steal an iPhone and $40 in cash.
The brazen broad-daylight theft happened on Thursday, in midtown Manhattan.
The driver of the yellow taxi had parked his car on West 37th Street, between Ninth and 10th avenues, and left it to use the restroom.
Security camera footage showed the woman approach the car carrying the cinder block.
The woman, with bright orange hair, can be seen carrying the cinder block with both hands towards the parked taxi
The woman walked past a white parked vehicle to get to the taxi, then smashed the window
The woman heaved the heavy block above her head before smashing it into the window
The woman then climbed through the window to grab the phone and cash
She hurled it at the drivers’ side window, and then clambered through the broken window to steal the phone and cash.
She then ran away.
The robbery comes amid a dangerous crime wave in the once-safe city.
In February there was a 60 percent spike in incidents when compared to the same period last year.
The city’s latest crime figures show there were 9,138 incidents last month, as opposed to 5,759 in February 2021 – with double-digit surges in nearly every major category.
There were 32 murders in February – three more than the same month last year.
Multiple other categories saw spikes, including car theft, which soared by nearly 105 percent; grand larceny, which jumped nearly 80 percent over the previous year; robberies, which surged 56 percent; a 44 percent bump in burglaries and a 22 percent spike in assaults.
Rapes also saw a 35 percent rise.
During the month of February, the NYPD reported a 58.7 percent increase in total crime
Overall crime in the city is up more than 45 percent since the same period last year
Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday said the spike in crime across New York City has made the Big Apple a ‘laughingstock’ in need of a ‘wartime general’ to tackle the ongoing problem.
Adams, speaking at the annual NYPD Holy Name Society communion Mass and breakfast, condemned the lawlessness throughout the city.
He blamed petty crime and homelessness as contributing factors to the widespread ‘dysfunction.’
‘Anything goes in the City of New York,’ Adams said.
‘The most important city on the globe has become the laughingstock of the globe.
‘And the dysfunctionality of our city has cascaded throughout the entire country.’
Source: Daily Mail
