What you should know
- Motorcycle thefts in New York City have become more common for suspected thieves to snatch people’s belongings across the city.
- Given this, the authorities have begun to carry out undercover operations on the streets of the 5 counties to find ghost motorcycles that are involved in this type of crimes.
- Official figures indicate that in 2023 more than 14,000 motorcycles were confiscated and that reflects double the number that were confiscated in 2022. It seems that this year the record could be broken, there are about 3,000 so far.
NEW YORK – Motorcycle robberies in New York City have become more common for suspected thieves to snatch people’s belongings across the city.
Given this, the authorities have begun to carry out undercover operations on the streets of the 5 counties to find ghost motorcycles that are involved in this type of crimes.
Right now, the main threat is scooters or scooters used by thieves and that in many cases cannot be identified because the vehicles do not have license plates.
For this reason, undercover agents are looking for thieves who disguise themselves as food delivery workers, and according to the scheme broken down by the police, after stealing the cell phones they unlock them to make fraudulent transactions and then send them to Colombia for sale. .
One of the cases occurred earlier this month when several migrants were arrested in connection with a pattern of cell phone thefts in recent months, New York City Police said. Dozens of people have been victims of these robberies.
Surveillance video showed the alleged thieves stealing, and many of their victims were women walking alone who targeted them for their cell phones, wallets and shopping bags.
Investigators added that some of the stolen phones have been tracked to other cities in the United States such as Miami and Houston, while others have reached Colombia, where they are cleaned so they can be used again.
“The person who operates the motorcycle gets paid $100 a day and for each phone they steal they get between $300, depending on the phone. Those phones are then taken to an apartment where a technician checks them and tries to break the passwords to steal the money from the victims’ bank accounts and credit cards,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Communications Carlos Nieves. .
UNCOVERED OPERATION TO CONFISCATE GHOST MOTORCYCLES
In one of the operations there was confiscation of several scooters, which did not have license plates and the motorcyclists did not have registration either.
So far in 2024, there are 32 active investigations in the city into this series of assaults using a scooter.
Official figures indicate that in 2023 more than 14,000 motorcycles were confiscated and that reflects double the number that were confiscated in 2022. It seems that this year the record could be broken, there are about 3,000 so far.
The NYPD’s top brass says some of the wheeler-dealing thieves live in migrant shelters. Many of these scooter seizures have occurred around hotels that serve as shelters.
Meanwhile, the controversy to apply stricter laws on the registration of these vehicles extends to the Municipal Council.
2024-02-14 20:32:35
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