February 23, 2008

Imagine being robbed at gunpoint when you're sitting in a midtown Starbucks in the daytime...

... right after you took $149,000 in cash out of the bank.

22 comments:

Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob said...

The Sullivan Act strikes again.

rhhardin said...

He's lucky it wasn't seized by the Feds. As it is he has some chance of getting it back.

KCFleming said...

Thank God for strict NY gun control laws, otherwise, the victim and bystanders might have been armed.

Peter V. Bella said...

I wonder if the mocha sippers were sipping in shock or acting as a cheering section.

Who draws out 149K in cash? Sounds like someone has some splaining to do!

Bissage said...

1. It’s kind of funny the news reporters don’t know whether the victim was grazed but they know the assailant was a black male dressed in a black hooded jacket and black pants who was in the bank lobby watching the cash withdrawal.

2. It’s kind of funny that an assailant armed with a firearm resorted to the least violent means necessary to obtain the sports bag. It’s as if he wanted to minimize the severity of a potential criminal sanction or something. Go figure.

Bob said...

Middle Class Guy: Who draws out 149K in cash? Sounds like someone has some splaining to do!

Agreed. Any smart police detective would have two investigative paths in this case: a legitimate robbery, and a staged robbery with the victim as a conspirator. The fact that he wasn't shot to death by the robber when he resisted makes me suspicious that this might be a fraud case.

Bissage said...

I like the fraud angle. They should waterboard Mr. Ijams with the smooth and versatile Guatemala Casi Cielo®. That’ll get it out of him.

Peter V. Bella said...

From the NY Post:
"Police said Ijams routinely makes large cash withdrawals, which are used by touring groups to pay for expenses."



There ya go. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Chip Ahoy said...

Oh well, live and learn.

KCFleming said...

It's nice to see NYC still at its Kitty Genovese best, bystanderwise.

Laura Reynolds said...

I took probabilty in college about thirty years ago but I'm pretty sure the odds that a random holdup nets $149k is less than winning the Powerball.

Trooper York said...

Look you are guarantied to get robbed if you walk into Starbucks. $5 or more for a cup of coffee. If he went for coffee at a cart outside like regular working class New Yorkers, I bet a lot of people would jump in to help. Starbucks is for the tress chic, tourists, the elite intelligentsia and visiting legal minds, not real New Yorkers.

blake said...

Yes, well $149K is a bit much for a "frappuccino".

blake said...

Of course, if he "routinely" took out huge sums of money, and an enterprising criminal saw that, he might plan to watch the guy and wait for the next time he did that.

Do they really hand out that sum of money to people at the teller window?

KCFleming said...

You're right, Trooper.

I mean, what could they do at Starbucks? Throw their lattes at them?

More guns = less crime.

And of course it's nothing unique to NYC.
No guns amongst bystanders = Kitty Genovese.

Trooper York said...

Actually Pogo, Kitty Genovese was a close relative of Vito Genovese who was the head of the commission at the time. There was more to the story than came out at the time. At least that's the word in certain circles of people who are in the know.

dick said...

Blake,

At my bank on Wall St you have to make arrangements in advance to withdraw more than $20K in cash. They just do not keep enough on hand to put out that much in cash routinely.

jen said...

Okay, pulling $149K in cash is odd. Leaving the bank, and stopping at a Starbucks would be WAY out of bounds.

However, it sounds like he got hit in front of the Starbucks as he was walking past, not while he was drinking his mochaccino . . . .

Stephen said...

I believe the French already have a phrase to describe such an incident: force de frappe

Peter V. Bella said...

A 149K can buy a lot of baloney and mayo sandwiches.

CCMCornell said...

Hmm - $150k petty cash for touring musicians? What, you can't charge your drugs and hookers to an expense account?

I require more transparency before I stop downloading music. I know wanna know exactly how many dollars of a CD goes towards sex and drugs.