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NYC kids being used to rob businesses

like modern day ‘Oliver Twist’
By Tina Moore and Georgia Worrell
Published Sep. 9, 2023, 10:05 a.m. ET

Surveillance video shows child walking into the Upside bar and through
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A crime tale straight out of Charles Dickens is unfolding in Trending Now

More On: the Big Apple — with adults “directing” children who appear on NYPost.com
burglaries no older than 10 to steal from unsuspecting businesses,
witnesses told The Post. 100,321
Two teens fatally shot by
Syracuse deputy while trying to
run him down in stolen car: The chubby-cheeked crooks have terrorized bars on the east
sheriff and west side of Manhattan and Brooklyn for months,
graduating from snatching money in unattended bags to
California woman fights off stealing cash from open safes in at least two bars in the last
naked man who snuck into her
apartment few weeks, according to workers and owners.

Inmany cases, the kids at first try to solicit money to raise East Coast on edge as major Cat. 4
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homes, steal luxury cars in NYC money for their “basketball team,” and then run amok. mph winds

Burglar chugs gasoline from In several incidents, adults were seen waiting for the kids
can after cops catch him 66,946
breaking into home with teen outside the plundered businesses.
girl inside
“The weird thing is it just feels like a modern day ‘Oliver
Twist’ story,” said a manager at Lexington Publick, one of
several of owner Jacob Rabinowitz’s watering holes hit over
the past few months.

“When they go out, there’s either a man or a woman waiting for them and directing,” Rabinowitz said. 'Pee-Wee Herman' star Paul Reubens'
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“These are little kids — this is child abuse!”
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The child was caught on camera in the office at Washington Commons in
Brooklyn.
Courtesy of the Lexington Publick Bar

The kiddie crime wave began about eight months ago, when two children repeatedly wreaked havoc at Page Six Style
Amsterdam Ale House on West 76th Street on the Upper West Side, at first taking whatever they could The best celebrity
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Things swiftly got out of hand in February when the pair grabbed food off a table, pushed a customer and
flashed a knife, said manager Whitney Kaufman. All the celebrities at
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“I watched a kid take a wing off someone’s plate and eat it,” Kaufman said. 2023: Janet Jackson,
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“Iwent to escort him out and he cursed at me. The 8-year-old turned around and said to me, ‘I don’t have
to do anything you say fat lady’ and punched me in the stomach. He ran into the back of the restaurant,
Supermodel Carol Alt
struts for Ukrainian
stole a child’s toy. Then grabbed a knife off the table and wielded it like a weapon. They shoved a guest.” designer Nizie
Emirshah
On Aug. 13, a young thief was at it again at Upside on Amsterdam at West 89th Street on the Upper West
side, stealing $600 cash from an open safe, cops said.
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Video
6-year-old goes shopping with her
own money for the first time
who told staffers he was
A child, 8, allegedly took money from the safe at Upper
West Side bar The Upside.
Courtesy of the Lexington Publick Bar

Bar owner Stephanie Slone, 40, said she had previously seen the boy — who told staffers he was 8 —
with an older child and they always asked for donations to their basketball team, offering few specifics
about the alleged squad.

The night of the theft “it was just the youngest one,” she said. He waited until the bartender went to the
bathroom to walk downstairs to the office, surveillance video provided to The Post shows.

“You can kind of see him looking in each area and doorway and then he notices the office, gets in the
office,” she said.

Screen shots show a young boy leaving the Upside Bar carrying a folder as he is chased out by two employees.
Courtesy of the Upside Bar

The Upside bar was one of the bars where safes were robbed.
Helayne Seidman

Stephanie Slone, owner of The Upside, a bar on Amsterdam Ave. on the Upper West Side, was recently burglarized by a
child who snuck downstairs to the basement and stole $600.
Helayne Seidman

She said part of the lock on the safe wasn’t secured.

Stairway to the Upside’s basement office where the cash was stolen.
Helayne Seidman

She said the bar is now discussing banning children who aren’t accompanied by an adult.

“The parents are obviously making them do that and have taught them what to do . . . it’s sad,” she said.

On Monday at 8:30 p.m. at Lexington Publick on Lexington Avenue and East 97th Street, one little thief
got about $700 in petty cash from the safe, said the bar’s manager, who asked to remain anonymous.

“The kid goes over, he opens the bathroom door, looks behind him to make sure no one’s looking, and
then he closes the bathroom door audibly, so that it sounds like he went in the bathroom,” she said, after
reviewing surveillance video.

“And then he just slipped right down into the office downstairs.”

A young boy was caught on surveillance video leaving a private area in the Lexington Publick bar.
Courtesy of the Upside Bar

The door to the bathroom and the door to the basement stand in close proximity at Lexington Publick, where the child
snuck down to the office and allegedly stole money.
Helayne Seidman

The boy remained down there for about seven minutes.

“Itwas a rather thick stack of bills so he tucked it in is waistband and tucked his shirt over it and then
covered his torso area with his folder,” she said.

When he left, the brat made an off-color comment to the bartender.

“I just took a really big s–t so don’t go back there for a while,” the child said.

“It’s really sad, these kids are being sent in, and they know exactly what to do,” she said.

“Idon’t know if someone stakes out the locations ahead of time . . . Maybe an adult came in a few days
before and had a beer, and scoped the place out.”

Lexington Publick bar was recently robbed by a child who asked to go to the bathroom but instead went into a downstairs
office and stole cash.
Helayne Seidman

In several cases it appeared the kids were scouting their targets, workers said.

On July 19 at Washington Commons bar near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, a boy burst in and made a
beeline for the basement, where he was scoping out security cameras, a bartender there said.

He left when she began recording him with her cellphone — and he spit at her on his way out.

And around that same time, a boy went into Chick Chick, a restaurant on West 90th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue and said he was fund-raising — and then bolted to the basement, said manager Josh
Ayers, 25.

“I’ve had to physically remove him before. He spit at me.”

345 What do you think? Post a comment.

It unclear if the same children are involved

is in all of the incidents, but several of the Manhattan bar
workers said they appear to be.

A police spokeswoman said cops were investigating two recent safe thefts, and whether there is a
citywide pattern.

When asked if there was a gang connection, she said the probe was ongoing.

Rabinowitz, 61, said the troubling trend recalled a much more recent time than Twist’s 1830s London.

“I haven’t seen anything like this since the ’80s.”

Filed under bars burglaries nypd thieves 9/9/23

Read Next Lyin' George Santos smirks at protest against Queens 'tent...

Conversation 346 Comments 1.6K Viewing

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4 People typing

JohnNY
1 hour ago
We get the political leaders we deserve. These fools were all voted into office with the support
wealthy individuals and corporations who are shielded from dealing with the consequences
f

living with the mess they have made.

Until voters and politicians have the courage to stand up and risk bein...
See more
Reply 66 Share
2 replies

doctor herb MD.

1 hour ago
We all talk in code, we have a problem that is getting worse & worse. If we say the truth we will
et in trouble. The poor cops have no idea on how they will be able to do their jobs. Does
have any answers? I no longer know what world I am living in.
Reply 125 Share
11 replies

Lawrence B
1 hour ago
Sad to say, but it is getting out of hand out there on the streets. Too many bad apples in the Big
spoil the whole barrel.
Reply 97 Share
3 replies

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