Police on Wednesday said they were looking for three men who stole wallets and credit cards from the locker rooms of several high-end gyms in Brooklyn and Manhattan and used the cards to spend $83,000 fraudulently.
According to NYPD officials, the first incident happened in Brooklyn on Dec. 17 of last year, when the suspects entered a Lifetime Gym on Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights around 3:45 p.m.
Once inside, police said, they snatched a cellphone and wallet containing credit cards from a gym locker, and then fled. They later used one of the credit cards to make a $27,000 transaction, according to the NYPD.
Police said a similar incident unfolded in Manhattan around 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 3, when two of the men allegedly walked into an Equinox gym on Park Avenue South in Flatiron and snatched another cellphone and wallet from a gym locker. They fled in an unknown direction and used one of the credit cards to make multiple unauthorized transactions adding up to $26,000, officials said.
The third incident happened on Jan. 15 at another Equinox, this time on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. Police said two of the suspects walked in just before noon, stole a cellphone and wallet from a locker and fled the location in a white Mercedes-Benz sedan. One of the credit cards was later used to make a $30,000 transaction, according to the NYPD.
Police said no one was injured in any of the incidents.
Grand larcenies — incidents where stolen property is worth more than $1,000 — are down more than 16% citywide so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to NYPD data.
The NYPD is asking anyone with information about the thefts to call its Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). People can also submit tips on the Crime Stoppers website.
This story is based on preliminary information from police and may be updated.
