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Police Beat: Delivery order yields more than just food

February 25, 2014 Helen Klein

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Three cops and the 68^th Precinct Detective Squad were in the spotlight, snagging Cop of the Month honors for apprehending two individuals for robbing Chinese food delivery persons whom they had first lured into isolated locations.

Deputy Inspector Richard DiBlasio, the precincts commanding officer, praised Sergeant Andrew Mastrande, P.O. Lance Sigman and P.O. Colleen Canavan, as well as the precincts Detective Squad, , for collaring the suspects after the third robbery had been committed.

Addressing members of the precincts community council, gathered at the station house for the February meeting, DiBlasio explained that the first incident had occurred on Christmas Eve, when an order for delivery had been called in to a local Chinese restaurant.

The perps had strategically picked a location where it was convenient to do the robbery, and when the delivery person arrived, had gotten him to enter a dark alleyway where the service entrance to an area apartment building was located, according to DiBlasio, who said that the crooks then took the money at gunpoint.

But, they werent through. Two days later, the same thing happened, and two days later, we went into all of the Chinese takeout delivery places and gave them information so they knew if they were being set up for a possible robbery, DiBlasio recounted.

After the third robbery, he went on, we revisited the places and assured them how serious it was. We wanted them to call us if certain pieces of the crime showed up, among them, a particular phone number.

That proved to be the crooks undoing, because one of the restaurants got a call and let the precinct know, whereupon the cops set up surveillance of the location, said DiBlasio.

The perps got there before the delivery person, and got tired of waiting, DiBlasio said. They ended up robbing an individual walking down the street. Because of that, we were able to apprehend them. Everything meshed. We had a good witness. We stopped the vehicle based on the description given by the witness, and the individuals were arrested, with each suspect charged with five counts.

The work of the 68^th Precinct cops, DiBlasio added, prevented future robberies, because these individuals were not going to stop.