Cue up the “William Tell Overture:” An NYPD mounted unit cop and his trusty steed helped corner a crook who robbed a Midtown vendor selling sunglasses, the Police Department said Tuesday.
The grab, with the assistance of a pair of two-legged cops, was caught on the mounted unit officer’s body camera, police said.
The officer was trotting towards the corner of W. 40th St. and Seventh Ave. around 6:45 p.m. Saturday when a 60-year-old vendor flagged him down and told him that someone had swiped a few pairs of sunglasses from his stand without paying.
When the vendor tried to get the sunglasses back, the suspect flashed a piece of broken glass and threatened to cut him with it, he told the officer.
The Mounted Unit officer saw the thief and tried to stop him on the sidewalk, but the man bolted.
The body camera shows the cop and his horse charging after the suspect for about a block before a pair of officers grab him without incident.
The homeless man, identified by police as Ignacio Lewis, was charged with robbery in the first degree, menacing and weapons possession. He was ordered held on $50,000 bail at his arraignment Sunday.
“All of your NYPD officers are involved in crime reduction, even the four-legged ones,” the NYPD wrote in a tweet with the body camera video Tuesday.
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