A Band Of 12 Extremely Notorious Chinatown Pick Pockets Makes Life Difficult For New York Cops And Citizens
A gang of pickpockets is causing havoc around Chinatown in New York, reports revealed.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has already issued mugshots of the individual gang members.
They may look like run-of-the-mill small-time offenders found in all major cities in the world, but their victims, as well as investigating officers, insist that these repeat offenders would not miss out on even the slightest of a chance of dipping into people's bags and robbing them off their valuables.
In fact, just like most crime stories, the looks of some of these offenders wouldn't give their unsuspected victims any vibe about their criminal background.
For example, Ha Vasko, one of the suspects looks more like any loving neighborhood grandmother than a hardened criminal. Similarly, there's Monica Gutierre, the 29-year old baby-faced offender in the group.
The gang overall includes 12 members, including a 72-year old Asian woman, a young Latina woman, and several African-American males from different groups, New York Post reported.
Many, however, suspect that they might not be part of the same gang but as far as cops are considered, they are not ruling out any possibility.
As of now, cops were on the lookout for James Huff, 40; Feng Liang, 57; Yvonne Dockery, 62; Jose Ochoa, 59; Steven Hall, 65; James Hardy, 50; Trent Richardson, 51; Monique Williams, 50; Pablo Rivera, 40; and Angelica Sanchez, 41.
Those familiar with the modus operandi of the groups say that the gang members typically cover their hands with a newspaper or jacket in order to conceal dipping into their victims' belongings.
Chinatown has recently witnessed a surge in petty crimes that many residents in the area believe, are a direct result of the slowdown of "broken windows" style policing.
