A brazen robber pointed a gun at a Canadian man’s head and snatched his $40,000 Rolex watch in the heart of Greenwich Village before fleeing on a moped Wednesday – just days after a gun-toting duo pulled off a similar heist outside a high-end Italian restaurant a couple blocks away, authorities and law enforcement sources said.
Wednesday’s armed crook approached his 58-year-old victim at the restaurant-lined corner of MacDougal and Bleecker streets in the hip Manhattan neighborhood, menaced him with the gun and demanded the man’s pricey Rolex Presidential timepiece, cops and sources said.
The crook grabbed the watch – plus a $2,000 bracelet – before meeting a moped-riding accomplice in the middle of the street and hopping on board, cops and sources said.
He was still in the wind Thursday morning.
The victim refused medical attention for a minor cut on his wrist, police said.
The terrifying mugging came several days after a June 18 heist outside the nearby upscale Italian eatery Carbone – in which a pair of moped riders snatched a $100,000 Patek Philippe watch from a 39-year-old man at gunpoint, cops and sources said.
In that case, the two robbers walked up to their victim outside the hot spot around 8:45 p.m. and pressed a black firearm to his chest while demanding that he surrender the watch, police and law enforcement sources said.
The criminals took the pricey jewelry and hopped on a moped, which they drove north on Thompson Street, sources said.
No arrests have been made in that case, and it was not immediately clear whether the two heists are connected.