Girl, 13, and her two accomplices, 14, arrested for robbery after threatening two male vendors
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Three teenage girls have been arrested for robbery after threatening two male vendors with knives and stealing hundreds of dollars of clothing from them.
Two girls, 13 and 14, were charged with second-degree robbery and a 14-year-old girl was charged with first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth-degree on Monday.
In a video, taken by one of the vendors Alberto, shows the girls screaming at the two vendors Alberto and Ernesto, who asked to only go by their first names, on August 12 around 3.30pm on River Avenue and East 157th Street in the Bronx, near Yankee Stadium.
They told the two men, 37 and 38, that they ‘aren’t scared of you’ and for them to ‘go back to Mexico.’
One of the girls can be heard saying: ‘I don’t care what the f**k you want…What are you going to do? I’m not scared of you.’
Ernesto exclusively told DailyMail.com that the girls ‘passed by them,’ which they had many times with incident, before stealing bracelets from Alberto, who does not speak English, and he had gone over to help when they started yelling racist things.
Three teenager girls, 13 and 14, were arrested on Monday and charged with robbery for attacking two vendors with a knife in the Bronx on August 14
The teenage girls (pictured) robbed Alberto and Ernesto, who asked to go by their first names, of hundreds of dollars of clothing at knifepoint in the Bronx and told them to ‘go back to Mexico,’ the vendors told DailyMail.com
‘Well, my friend [Alberto], he called me to help him try to stop them from stealing so much, so the moment I left from here, we start fighting with the people,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Now they’re trying to fight with us and telling us things, things of racism, hate, everything that can be said bad and when they start taking stuff from him, some of them came over here to steal and take t-shirts.
‘They said things like ‘fucking Mexican, go back to your country, wet backs, things like that, racism.’
He said the girls pulled a knife on the two men and ‘tried to stab people.’
Alberto pulled out his camera as the girls became aggressive, saying: ‘I began to record because it’s the only way to defend ourselves and get those who stole from us.
Alberto filmed the altercation between after they stole bracelets from him and had Ernesto to talk to the girl, since he knew some English. The girls can heard yelling at him and telling them they weren’t ‘scared of you’
Alberto said the girls stole bracelets (pictured) from him and they stole t-shirts from Ernesto
The men sold items to help keep their families afloat (pictured: some of the items they sell)
‘So, they were not happy about that and they came back to take stuff and when we said they can’t touch nothing they said that they don’t care and they keep taking more stuff.’
Alberto and Ernesto sell clothing and other items to help keep their families afloat. Both said others have stolen from them before, but usually ‘just slip something in their pocket.’
Ernesto told DailyMail.com that he suffered from a bruise and was ‘punched in the back’ by the girls, but neither he nor Alberto sought medical attention.
‘I thought they were going to cut me, but I still didn’t care or think about it because I didn’t want to think they would actually do anything,’ Ernesto told DailyMail.com.
Ernesto told DailyMail.com that he advises other vendors to ‘really take care of themselves’ and not to worry too much about ‘material things.’
‘We’re not going to lose our lives [over it] and material things come and go,’ he said.
He also said he was ‘grateful’ for the police and thinks everyone should say something if they see something.
‘Because if you don’t say something, it’s like staying silent about the situation, and it keeps getting worse,’ he told DailyMail.com.
Police are looking into whether or not the trio are connected to other crimes in the area.
Robbery comes as no surprise to many New Yorkers, who have watched crime statistics fluctuate at shocking numbers over the past year.
Robbery is up 39 percent throughout the five boroughs and 43 percent in the Bronx alone
Robbery throughout NYC is up 39.7 percent compared to the same time last year, with overall crime up 36 percent. It’s up 43 percent in the Bronx alone, with overall crime being up 32 percent.
The only violent crime that is down in the city, as a whole, is murder. with only 265 deaths compared to the 296 of last year.
Rape and assaults are also up at 8 and 19 percent, respectively.