Six deliverymen from local Chinese takeout restaurants have been robbed at the same Bedford Park block on the Grand Concourse since December, highlighting the oft dangerous work deliverymen take on.
In the latest incident, a deliveryman from the Ka Wah Chinese Restaurant on Valentine Avenue was robbed at knifepoint inside 2894 Grand Concourse on March 4. The owner said this was his second deliveryman robbed in the past two weeks.
Recalling a similar account at the same building as another victim, the deliveryman explained, “When I got to the fifth floor, I was ringing the bell, but no one opened the door, so I called again. They came up from downstairs, two big guys with big knives.”
The victim reported that both men wore masks and spoke in a Spanish accent, both placing their weapons at the young man’s abdomen and taking food, $150 in cash, and the victim’s cell phone.
When asked if he fears going into buildings since the incident he replied, “I think about it sometimes,” but has to earn a living.
A co-owner of Mei Mei Chinese Restaurant at 2831 Grand Concourse, who declined to use his name for this article, said his driver was robbed at the same building on Feb. 28, adding that the driver, a relative, was punched in the face and robbed by two masked assailants as a third waited on the stairs below. The co-owner said a fourth suspect, a female, placed the bogus order.
The thieves escaped with the $37.50 food order as well as a second food order, totaling $50 in food and $130 in cash.
Feeling the police have turned their backs on the Chinese food delivery business, the co-owner claimed, “The police told us not to deliver there anymore, but the people won’t come down to meet the driver.”
Another co-owner claimed the crooks called back the following night.
“We had their number,” she said, taking the order and quickly calling police. “But the police didn’t call back until 4 a.m. the next morning,” long after a delivery driver from the Double Dragon Restaurant on Jerome Avenue was robbed of food and $200 in cash on Feb. 29 at the same building.
The co-owner of Mei Mei’s, who also owns the Hong Kong Kitchen on East 198th Street, also claimed after being robbed, her driver watched as the suspects ran into an apartment on the third-floor. “The police are doing nothing, you can ask the people there. The police are called there every day,” she said.
The owners of the Lucky Star Chinese Takeout at 145 W. Kingsbridge Rd. confirmed that one of his deliverymen was robbed on the street in early December. The suspect fled into 2890 Grand Concourse.
The NYPD has not yet responded to a request for comment on these pattern robberies, but detectives from the 52nd Precinct are said to be aware of it and are currently working on all of the recent incidents that have been reported.