‘Find My iPhone’ App Helps Cops Nab Bath Beach Playground Muggers
With the help of technology, police caught up with two young thieves traveling on an MTA bus Saturday as they tried to flee the scene of the crime.
The stickup kids, ages 15 and 20, approached five teenagers at Dreier-Offerman Playground (Bay 46th Street and Cropsey Avenue, adjacent to Bensonhurst Park) in Bath Beach, according to the NYPD. The pair allegedly pulled out a gun and forced the youths to turn over two cellphones before taking off.
A mother of one of victims helped police use a “Find My iPhone” app to locate one of the phones traveling west down Mermaid Avenue, say authorities.
After police broadcasted the phone’s location and a description of the suspects, officers realized the two youths were on a B74 bus. Two plainclothes officers boarded the bus at West 28th Street and Mermaid Avenue and removed the suspects onto the sidewalk, according to police.
The officers searched their captives and recovered the stolen cell phones as well as a Crossman Vigilante BB gun, say cops.
The two suspects, Rysheek Dixon, 20, and Timothy Wright, 15, were charged with robbery, criminal possession of a disguised gun, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of stolen property and menacing, according to police.
