Arrest Made in Robberies Using Hypodermic Needle

By J. DAVID GOODMAN

The police said Monday that they were holding a “person of interest” in connection with a spate of holdups in which the robber wielded a hypodermic needle to frighten victims into giving up their electronic devices and other property.

The man was taken into custody without incident around noon in the Getty Square neighborhood of Yonkers, the police there said. It was not clear whether the man lived in the area.

The New York City police said the man had been tied to at least eight daytime robberies around the Bronx stretching back to August. Last week, they identified the suspect in the case as Angel Anthony Cintron, 39. But the police would not confirm that Mr. Cintron was the man arrested on Monday, pending lineups expected later in the day.

In most of the robberies, a hypodermic needle with a syringe was used to threaten young men into handing over their belongings. It was not clear if the man claimed th at anything specific was in the syringe.

Five of the robberies occurred on one day in September.

During the Friday morning rush on Sept. 14, the police said, the suspect snatched an iPod from a 31-year-old man. Less than an hour later, and one block away along East Tremont Avenue, he took a cellphone from a 14-year-old boy after brandishing the hypodermic needle, the police said. Roughly 10 minutes later, an iPad was taken from a male victim a short walk away.

The suspect then tried talking with a 17-year-old on board a bus before taking out a knife and trying to rob the teenager, who managed to escape, the police said. At 6 p.m. the same day, the police said, the suspect threatened a teenager and made off with his iPod.

The Daily News reported that a robbery on Saturday morning using a hypodermic needle may be tied to the same suspect.

Since the beginning of the year, the police said, more than 11,000 Apple produc ts have been reported stolen, an increase of 40 percent over last year. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said last month that such thefts “drove the spike in robberies and larceny” this year.

The image of a needle wielded as a deadly weapon recalled past instances. In 1988, a man claiming to have AIDS held a needle to a woman's neck and robbed her of jewelry. The police said at the time that the man did not appear to have the disease.