A 23-year-old man was punched and kicked by two unidentified attackers before dawn on Sunday, August 9, near the intersection of Boston Road and Union Avenue in the Bronx, and had his cellphone forcibly taken during the assault. The attack happened around 5:15 a.m. within the confines of the NYPD's 42nd Precinct, and the two suspects fled the scene in an unknown direction, leaving investigators with no immediate leads on their identities.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers, the victim was approached by the two individuals, who then punched and kicked him before forcibly removing his cellphone. The alert, posted under the handle @NYPDTips, does not include descriptions of the suspects beyond noting they remain unidentified. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment, a payout funded and administered by the private non-profit New York City Police Foundation rather than the city's police budget.
🚨WANTED FOR A ROBBERY: on Sunday, August 9, 2026, at approximately 5:15 A.M., in the vicinity of Boston Road and Union Avenue, in the confines of 42 Precinct, a 23-year-old male victim was approached by two unidentified individuals. The individuals punched and kicked the victim… pic.twitter.com/U4Uf3gK542
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) August 23, 2026
The intersection sits within the 42nd Precinct, a roughly 1.09-square-mile patrol area covering Morrisania, Claremont, Crotona Park, and Crotona Park East, per NYPD data. The precinct's station house is headquartered at 830 Washington Avenue. Boston Road and Union Avenue functions as a busy commercial crossroads linking Morrisania and Crotona Park East, and the corridor's high-traffic character was on display in June, when a violent multi-vehicle crash there launched an SUV onto a parked minivan, as reported by News 12 Bronx.
A Pattern of Violent Muggings in the 42nd Precinct
This is not the first violent robbery to draw a Crime Stoppers appeal in the precinct this summer. In July, police sought help identifying a suspect who repeatedly punched a 35-year-old victim in the face and stole his cellphone aboard a Bronx 5 train, an incident Hoodline detailed in its report, rider pummeled and robbed on train. Weeks before that, detectives offered a matching $3,500 reward after multiple gunmen opened fire near Webster Avenue and Claremont Parkway during a June afternoon shooting.
Under New York Penal Law § 160.10, forcibly stealing property while aided by another person present, or while causing physical injury, constitutes Robbery in the Second Degree, according to the New York State Senate. That charge is a Class C violent felony carrying a sentence of 3.5 to 15 years in state prison. Because two individuals allegedly participated in the August 9 attack and the victim was punched and kicked, the incident fits squarely within that statutory definition should suspects eventually be identified and charged.
Crime Trends Show a Mixed Picture
Robbery complaints across the Bronx North patrol area were actually down 9.7% year-to-date through mid-July compared to the same period in 2025, according to NYPD CompStat data, with total robberies falling from 1,221 to 1,103. Citywide, overall major crime fell 5.9% at the midyear mark compared to 2025, per statistics compiled by Vital City, even as violent assaults remained an exception to that broader decline. The Boston Road attack underscores how individual violent muggings can still shake a neighborhood even as aggregate numbers trend downward.
How to Submit a Tip
Since its founding in 1983, the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline has helped solve more than 5,600 violent crimes, including nearly 1,600 murders and attempted murders, and has approved over $3.4 million in rewards, according to the New York City Police Foundation. The program never records, saves, or traces callers' phone numbers or IP addresses, preserving tipster anonymity. Anyone with information about the August 9 robbery is asked to call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), submit a tip through the Crime Stoppers website, or reach out on X via @NYPDTips.
Given the South Bronx's large Spanish-speaking population, Crime Stoppers also maintains a dedicated Spanish-language line at 1-888-57-PISTA (1-888-577-4782). Crotona Park East, one of the neighborhoods within the 42nd Precinct's boundaries, has a majority Hispanic population exceeding 65%, making the bilingual hotline a practical resource for residents near the crime scene. It remains unclear whether surveillance footage from nearby storefronts has produced any additional suspect descriptions beyond the initial alert.
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