A trio riding a single motorized scooter is wanted in connection with 26 chain-snatching robberies across the Bronx and Manhattan, according to the NYPD. The robberies were reported between June 29 and August 28, with suspects grabbing jewelry — primarily chains — off victims before speeding away from the scene.
The department released new surveillance images of the three suspects this week, hoping the public can help identify them, as reported by ABC7 New York. Some of the images tied to the pattern were captured in the 50th and 52nd Precincts in the Bronx, according to the outlet's report. No injuries were reported in connection with the 26 incidents, though the suspects have repeatedly fled the scene after snatching jewelry from their targets.
A Pattern That Spans Two Boroughs
The scope of the pattern — 26 separate robberies over roughly two months, spread across the Bronx and Manhattan — underscores how mobile these crews have become. Detectives say the suspects relied on a motorized scooter to make quick getaways, a tactic that has become a recurring headache for investigators trying to track fast-moving, unregistered two-wheelers through city traffic.
It's a challenge Hoodline has chronicled repeatedly in the Bronx this summer. In August alone, Hoodline reported on a moped duo who beat a man near Van Cortlandt Park while ripping a chain off him, another crew that struck a driver stopped at a red light on Exterior Street, and a scooter rider who stripped a necklace off a man on Jerome Avenue. A separate case saw a 72-year-old woman robbed of her gold chain by a moped rider in the 52nd Precinct.
Northern Bronx Precinct Seeing a Spike
The 52nd Precinct, based in Bedford Park and covering swaths of the northern Bronx named in recent NYPD alerts, has seen reported robberies climb nearly 9% year-over-year in early 2026, to at least 124 cases — a local uptick even as citywide numbers move in the opposite direction. NYPD CompStat data covering January 1 through August 30 recorded 8,863 robbery complaints citywide, a 12% decrease from the 10,068 robberies reported over the same stretch in 2025.
That contrast — falling citywide robbery numbers alongside a stubborn spike in specific Bronx precincts — points to how concentrated the scooter-based chain-snatching problem has become in certain neighborhoods, even as overall violent crime trends downward. Similar motorized robbery sprees have popped up elsewhere in the city this year; detectives tracked a separate month-long moped pattern across Brooklyn and Queens in mid-2026 that targeted 29 pedestrians between June 15 and July 10, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.
Statutory Stakes for the Suspects
Under New York Penal Law, forcibly yanking a necklace off a victim's body is classified as Robbery in the Third Degree, a Class D felony that carries up to seven years in state prison, according to the NY State Senate. That's a meaningfully harsher charge than Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a Class E felony capped at four years, which applies to non-violent theft taken from a person without a struggle — the same statute notes that any physical force during the theft automatically elevates the charge to robbery.
This isn't the first time investigators have chased an organized moped crew across Bronx precinct lines. In April, the NYPD released surveillance images connecting a moped crew — riding in packs of up to six — to a separate multi-precinct chain-snatching pattern spanning the 42nd, 50th, and 52nd Precincts as well as Queens, according to Norwood News. NYPD data cited by the city's Mayor's Office shows moped- and scooter-involved robbery complaints ballooned from 44 complaints across 10 patterns in early 2022 to more than 415 complaints across 79 distinct patterns during the same five-month window in 2024.
Citywide Crackdown on Illegal Two-Wheelers
The NYPD has leaned into aggressive enforcement against unregistered scooters and mopeds as one response to the pattern. Officers seized more than 5,700 unregistered motorized two-wheelers citywide through May 2026 — a nearly 10% jump from the same period in 2025 — and publicly crushed over 200 confiscated vehicles in Staten Island, per Spectrum News NY1.
Anyone with information on the suspects or the robbery pattern is asked to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers, which offers confidential cash rewards of up to $3,500 for tips leading to an arrest and indictment. Tipsters can call 1-800-577-TIPS, or 1-888-57-PISTA for Spanish speakers, and all tips remain confidential.
