Police said a gas station employee was the victim of an armed robbery at around midnight on Tuesday night, Aug 8, in Bedford Park.

 

They said the robbery took place at Gastor gas station, located at 2985 Jerome Avenue, when two male suspects entered the business, pushed a male employee into a corner, displayed a gun, and “demanded property.” Police said the two stole a sum of money from the employee’s pocket before fleeing the location on Jerome Avenue. They said the employee, whose age unknown, was not injured as a result of the incident.

 

When Norwood News visited the location on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 9, it was very busy with everyone out walking to get to a bus stop or to Bedford Park Boulevard Subway station, which serves the 4 train and is located near the gas station, and a block away from Lehman College.

 

One male resident who declined to give his name said he didn’t hear anything about the robbery but was “not surprised at the way things are going on around the area.” Another woman who declined to give her name said it was “very dangerous to go out” in general. “The gas station gets robbed, people get robbed, and cab drivers get robbed,” she said. “With COVID, there was a curfew. You were more safe
at that time.”

 

A middle-aged, male employee working at the gas station on Thursday, Aug. 10, told Norwood News it was his colleague who had been there the night of the robbery. He added that a cab driver, who usually parks outside the station, saw what happened and caused a commotion outside, scaring the assailants off. We later spoke directly with the cab driver also and asked him what he witnessed.

 

“The point was I was here,” he said. “I normally sit in the car so when I was sitting in the car, I face this way and I saw guys coming this way.” Asked if he could describe them, he said they were “two Black guys” wearing hoodies and with their faces covered half way with facemasks.  “So, I didn’t know what happened,” he said. “I was sitting down. I get out from the car. When I turn back this way, I saw them inside the gas station pushing the guy into the corner, so I wanted to go there, but the way I see….. I said.. ‘Hmm, I don’t want them to shoot me.'”

 

Asked if he could see if the two were holding a gun, he said, “Well, you know, sometime the midnight is so.. you can’t tell. So because… when I saw that, I’m scared to get closer, so I just started… I start screaming.. I said, ‘Ehhhh!!!’ Then they turn back and see me, so I did this….[waves hands demonstratively].” He added, “I said, ‘Come! Come! People, come!’ So, when I did that, they came out.”

 

Asked if the employee was hurt, he said, “No, but he get a little bit anxious.” Asked if he was a young employee, the cab driver said, he was aged about 50.

 

Norwood News previously reported on a robbery of another gas station in Allerton, during which an employee was shot in the head.

 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on Twitter @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.