The incidents are part of a wider, disturbing pattern plaguing the al fresco grub sellers in Upper Manhattan.
A spike in robberies of food vendors on the Upper West Side is causing anxiety amongst grub sellers.The Upper West Side is becoming the wild west for late night outdoor food vendors — who have been targeted by gun-toting thieves four times in the past week alone, The Post has learned.
On April 16, a pistol-wielding perp walked up to a taco truck at Broadway and West 70th Street just before 2 a.m., and stole $500 and a cell phone from a 19-year-old woman working there, the NYPD said. The crook threatened to shoot the woman if she left the truck, cops said.Street, asking for change for a $10 bill. When the vendor took out his cash, the crook whipped out his handgun, stole $150 and the vendor’s cell phone, the NYPD said.
“Before it happened, I was fine. Now I’m scared all the time,” said Cafil Mahmud, who was working at the fruit stand when it was robbed. “I’m all alone here. It’s empty. No one is watching. There are barely any taxis. All of it is slow.”The neighborhood is desolate and eerily quiet for much of Mahmud’s 10 p.m to 5 a.m. shift – few pedestrians, even fewer fellow vendors and no familiar faces – so he’s always nervous about who might walk up on him, he told The Post.
Pedro Cortez, 20, works at the Taco y Quesadilla truck that was robbed twice. Using a translator app, the Mexico City native described the incidents as “very ugly” ordeals and said he fears it will happen to him in the future. “Every morning, I start my day, leave my house and pray to God to save me,” said Ahmed Abdelfattah, 50. “I have to make a living.”Street in January. Six weeks ago, in the early morning, thieves stole his generator when he briefly stepped away .
It’s not just street vendors being targeted. A wanted poster was taped to Cortez’ truck, asking for information about another recent gunpoint robbery in the neighborhood at El Gallo Taqueria, on Amsterdam Avenue between West 83rd Street and West 84th Street.
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