The NYPD is asking New Yorkers to help identify two people wanted in connection with a robbery pattern that unfolded within the 5th Precinct in Lower Manhattan. The department's Crime Stoppers unit shared images of the pair on Friday evening, October 16, 2026, at 9:45 PM, but has not released details about when or where the incidents happened, what was taken, or whether anyone was hurt.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers
, the department is seeking the public's assistance in identifying the two individuals depicted in images attached to its post, who are wanted in connection with a robbery pattern that occurred within the confines of the 5th Precinct. That precinct covers the southeastern edge of Manhattan, an area that includes Chinatown, Little Italy and the Bowery, per the
NYPD
.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or dial the Spanish-language line at 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website or on X at @NYPDTips, the department said.
Crime Stoppers is a public-private partnership between the NYPD and the New York City Police Foundation, which administers the program and distributes rewards. The program, established in 1983, offers up to $3,500 for anonymous information that leads to the arrest and indictment of a violent felon, as outlined on the NYPD Crime Stoppers page.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Street Robberies This Year
The appeal comes amid a broader decline in reported robberies: at an October 6 crime briefing, the NYPD said robberies were down 12% citywide year to date, with nearly 1,400 fewer complaints than at the same point in 2025, and that September had the fewest robberies of any September on record. Those citywide figures do not establish whether the incidents in the 5th Precinct appeal follow the same trend, the department said in its quarterly crime briefing.
This isn't the only robbery pattern NYPD has flagged to the public this year. A citywide jewelry robbery pattern spanning the Bronx and Manhattan was reported in July, with suspects described as riding bicycles or mopeds before forcibly removing jewelry and other belongings from victims, as reported by SILive and ABC7NY. In that case, which is not confirmed to be connected to the 5th Precinct pattern, police said 15 incidents occurred between May 28 and July 16, 2026, and that two unidentified individuals used a bicycle or moped to snatch jewelry and other property, the outlet noted.
Similar tactics turned up earlier in the year in the Bronx. A robbery pattern traced across the 52nd Precinct in March involved suspects on a moped who took victims' necklaces and chains, according to Norwood News. It is not established whether that case has any link to the pattern described in the 5th Precinct.
New York law defines robbery as forcible stealing: in the course of a larceny, a person must use or threaten the immediate use of physical force to overcome resistance, retain property immediately after taking it, or compel someone to hand it over. The statute supplies the legal definition, but the NYPD has not disclosed the circumstances of the Lower Manhattan incidents, so it is not yet clear what conduct investigators are examining under that definition. The rule appears in New York Penal Law § 160.00.
More Cases Highlight Ongoing Surveillance Appeals
In September, police released surveillance images of a man wanted for questioning after three Bronx robberies, including one in which suspects forcibly took about $21,000 that had been inside a yellow envelope, per the same SILive report. Separately, ABC7NY has reported that three suspects were linked to 26 chain-snatching robberies reported between June 29 and August 28 across the Bronx and Manhattan. None of those cases has been confirmed as connected to the 5th Precinct robbery pattern described in this week's appeal.
Across these cases, the NYPD has repeatedly turned to surveillance imagery and public tips to track down suspects in street robbery patterns, a tactic also used in the 5th Precinct appeal. For now, the identities of the two people sought in the Lower Manhattan case remain unknown, and police have not disclosed further specifics about the underlying incidents.
