Deliveryman: I must work despite attacks

A CHINESE FOOD deliveryman beaten and robbed of $150 in the Bronx by three teens said he’s scared but has no choice except to keep on working.

The heartless teens attacked 46-year-old Dao Li in a building on Walton Ave. in Highbridge about 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 24.

“I’m scared but I must do it,” Li said Friday as he continued to make deliveries for the restaurant he owns, Happy Dragon on Walton Ave. near E. 169th St.

“This is my store. I can’t close it, right? I have a wife and kids,” said Li, whose children are 15 and 11. “They have to eat.”

Li said one of the three teens had been targeting him for some time but Li didn’t call the police because he doesn’t speak English very well.

“Two or three times he’s tried to steal my food. I don’t know why,” he said. “Maybe because I’m Chinese, because I’m skinny?”

Several months ago, that teen threw a glass bottle at him as he walked down a sidewalk late at night with his wife, he said.

“He was across the street with a few people,” he said. “I think it was beer (bottle). It breaks on the sidewalk in front of me and I jump back. Then we ran home.”

Cops released startling surveillance video showing the teens’ cruel assault on Li and asked the public’s help identifying and tracking down his assailants.

Additional video obtained by The News shows him walk into the building with two bags of food to deliver.

The three attackers watched him come in and then peeked up a flight of stairs as they picked their places for the ambush, the video shows.

As Li walked down the stairs, a teen sporting a backpack jumped behind a larger friend in a blue shirt. As a third teen distracted the deliveryman by putting his hand in his waist — as if he had a gun — the teen in the blue shirt coldcocked Li.

The victim reeled back onto the stairs but quickly bounced back up — only to be shoved to the ground and beaten.

The teen carrying the backpack jumped around watched the fight but didn’t throw any punches. He was the first out the door as his friends went though Li’s pockets, taking $150.

Li immediately called 911 but initially refused medical attention. He went to Bronx Lebanon Hospital the next day.

“I didn’t go to the hospital until the next day because I was scared,” he said. “It really hurt — my mouth, my head.”

As of Friday afternoon, there had been no arrests.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.