Amid spike in robberies, NYPD adds patrols in iconic Central Park

Police set up a staging area in Central Park following a series of muggings at the park on August 15, 2024 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP At one of the main entrances on the southern end of Central Park across from West 59th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, a police poster stapled to a pole reads: "UP TO $3,500 REWARD FOR INFORMATION REGARDING A ROBBERY." "Too early for police and for the robbers," Mohammed, a pedicab driver who said he was from "somewhere in West Africa'' and has worked for nine years in the park, told China Daily. In the two weeks since that Aug 1 robbery listed on the poster, police said there have been at least 10 other robberies inside or near the park's south end. "News reports didn't say whether the robbery victims included Asians, but that doesn't matter, because there's already enough hate crime against Asians in the city," he said.