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Published September 10, 2023, 5:45 p.m. ET
The owner of an Upper West Side bar terrorized by a gang of thieving kids said he was threatened by one of the youths — as another Manhattan business owner came forward as a victim of the child crime wave on Sunday.
Jacob Rabinowitz, owner of the Amsterdam Ale House, was at the bar on West 76th Street on Saturday night when he said he saw one of the children who robbed his patrons in February begging outside his shop.
Rabinowitz told the Post he chased the boy away and then warned other businesses about the child — after which the boy allegedly threatened him.
“He said he was going to beat me up,” Rabinowitz recalled Sunday. “It was this little kid who told me that.”
When the pub owner warned the child to call the police, the boy reportedly replied, “The police can’t arrest me, I’m just a kid.”
The chubby crooks – who appear to be no more than 10 years old – have been targeting businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn for months, going from stealing money in unattended pockets to stealing cash from open safes, Post workers and owners said in an exclusive report on Saturday.
A child was seen making off with a waitress’s belongings after cleaning out her bag at Stone Street Tavern.
Workers at the Stone Street Tavern in the Financial District said Sunday they also fell victim to the young gang of thieves.
Raul Gomez, 24, a bartender at the tavern, said one of the boys, whom he described as a seven or eight-year-old, stole a waitress’ unattended purse on the afternoon of June 15 and emptied it in the bathroom.
“We’re just telling other people what happened and we found that a number of other places down the road were hit in exactly the same way,” Gomez told The Post.
The owner of the Stone Street Tavern said the boy, who was filmed on camera, appeared to be part of the same group that the Post reported allegedly attacked Rabinowitz’s businesses, which include the Lexington Publick in East Harlem .
The bar in New York City’s financial district is one of many targeted by the small-time bandits over the past eight months. Gabriella Bass
The killing spree began about eight months ago when two children repeatedly wreaked havoc at the Amsterdam Ale House, taking anything they could snatch from unattended bags.
Things got out of hand in February when the couple snatched food from a table, pushed a customer and produced a knife, manager Whitney Kaufman said.
On August 13, a young thief was again at work at the Upside on Amsterdam on West 89th Street on the Upper West Side, stealing $600 cash from an open safe, police officers said.
At 8:30 pm last Monday, a petty thief stole about $700 in petty cash from the safe at the Lexington Publick at Lexington Avenue and East 97th Street, the bar manager said.
A young boy was caught on surveillance video leaving a private area at the Lexington Publick Bar. Courtesy of Upside Bar
It’s unclear if all of the incidents involved the same children, but several Manhattan bar employees said that appeared to be the case.
The Stone Street Tavern owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said the children initially appeared to be like normal children selling chocolate and being accompanied by their mothers.
However, the simple begging became sinister when groups began entering the taverns, with mothers reportedly allowing their children to roam free.
“The boys will pretend to go downstairs to the toilet. “There are all the offices and rooms that are reserved only for employees,” noted the owner. “And they immediately grab the handbags, bags, coats, wallets or whatever the employees find.
A child was caught on camera after cleaning out a safe at Upper West Side bar The Upside. Courtesy of Lexington Publick Bar
“They hit multiple locations on the same day. Like the day they stole the purse at Stone Street Tavern, they had previously been attacked at two other locations,” he added.
The owner described the situation as “really, really sad” and said that even when his staff kicks the kids out, they always come back, sometimes as little as 20 minutes later.
Rabinowitz expressed similar exhaustion at the apparent futility of trying to stop the young bandits, saying an officer told him on Sunday there was nothing the police could do when he alerted him to the child’s presence outside his pub.
At the Lexington Publick Bar, one of the petty thieves was seen stealing $700 from the safe. Helayne Seidman
“We small business owners feel overwhelmed by this constant barrage of petty theft,” he said. “It seems impossible to keep them out and it’s frustrating that nothing is being done about it.”
A police spokeswoman said police were investigating two recent thefts from safes and whether there was a citywide pattern.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
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