A 52-year-old man was punched and kicked to the ground in front of 514 Concord Avenue in Mott Haven on the night of Monday, July 20, after three unidentified individuals approached him from behind, stole his Apple iPhone from his front pants pocket, and fled north on an electric bicycle toward East 149th Street. The attack happened at approximately 9:18 p.m., within the confines of the NYPD's 40th Precinct, and police are now asking the public for help identifying the attackers.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers, the three individuals approached the victim from behind before punching and kicking him about the body, causing him to fall to the ground. One of the attackers then removed the victim's iPhone from his pocket, and all three fled the scene together on the e-bike, traveling northbound on Concord Avenue toward East 149th Street. Crime Stoppers is offering up to $3,500 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the case.
🚨WANTED FOR A ROBBERY: On Monday, July 20, 2026, at approximately 9:18 P.M., in front of 514 Concord Avenue, in the confines of the 40 Precinct in the Bronx, a 52-year-old male victim was approached from behind by three unidentified individuals. The individuals then punched and… pic.twitter.com/tIUsuzfBzI
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) August 27, 2026
A Precinct Already Leading the City in Robberies
The attack unfolded in the residential heart of Mott Haven, just blocks south of the East 149th Street commercial corridor and St. Mary's Park, according to Zillow. That stretch of East 149th Street has drawn its own scrutiny; it converges with Third Avenue to form The Hub, the South Bronx's oldest retail corridor, which underwent multi-agency safety operations last year after merchants complained about open-air theft and street disruptions, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of a deli shooting and robbery nearby.
The neighborhood falls within the 40th Precinct, which NYPD crime statistics through July 2026 show recorded 210 year-to-date robbery complaints, the highest total logged by any single precinct across the city's five boroughs, even as citywide robbery complaints dropped 12.2% over the same period. The precinct has a documented history of summer spikes in street robberies; Bronx crime data from June 2025 showed a 14.3% borough-wide surge in reported robberies, with the 40th Precinct posting the borough's largest jump, climbing from 51 to 71 reported robbery cases in a single 28-day window.
An E-Bike Getaway Fits a Familiar Pattern
The suspects' use of an electric bicycle to escape mirrors a tactic seen repeatedly across the city. NYPD operational data from 2024 showed police seized nearly 42,000 unregistered motorized two-wheeled vehicles over a 30-month span, prompting the department to launch specialized task forces using drones and tracking helicopters to combat e-bike and moped street robberies. Criminal crews across New York City have increasingly relied on the speed and maneuverability of e-bikes to pull off physical snatch-and-grab attacks and outrun responding foot patrols.
The 40th Precinct, which serves Port Morris, Mott Haven, and Melrose, now operates out of a 45,000-square-foot, $85 million station house at 567 East 149th Street that opened in late 2024 as the city's first police station with a dedicated public community room. In April, the NYPD announced plans to restaff the former 40th Precinct building at 257 Alexander Avenue as the new headquarters for Patrol Borough Bronx South, adding roughly 200 officers to South Bronx commands. Despite the added infrastructure and staffing, the precinct's robbery numbers this year remain the highest citywide.
How to Submit a Tip
NYPD Crime Stoppers is asking anyone with information about the robbery to come forward, with full anonymity guaranteed. The organization operates as an independent public-private partnership managed by the New York City Police Foundation and is funded entirely through private donations rather than tax dollars, which the foundation says ensures complete anonymity for tipsters. Since its founding in 1983, Crime Stoppers tips have helped solve more than 5,600 violent crimes — including nearly 1,600 homicides and attempted homicides — and the program has paid out more than $3.4 million in cash rewards to anonymous tipsters.
Tips can be submitted by calling 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), by visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or by messaging @NYPDTips on X. Spanish-speaking tipsters can call 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). This robbery is one of several recent physical street attacks reported in the South Bronx, following an earlier Mott Haven beatdown in which a trio was also sought for a group assault and robbery.
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