Cowards rough up 80-yr.-old
AN 80-YEAR-OLD man mugged just steps away from the front door of his East Harlem apartment said Friday that he feels sorry for the two “cowards” who roughed him up.
Modesto Cotto — who had just cashed $1,300 from his pension and Social Security checks — held the door for two men after walking into his E. 112th St. building in the Jefferson Houses about 3:15 p.m. Thursday.
But the kind gesture backfired when Cotto, a retired MTA bus driver, was attacked by one of the brutes just before he reached the door to his second-floor home, he said.
“I turned and he was already on top of me,” recalled Cotto. “He grabbed me by the neck and choked me. The other one began going through my pockets.”
The bandits swiped Cotto’s wallet, which also contained his driver’s license, Social Security card and credit cards.
“The way they were holding me, I couldn’t scream,” he said. “They had my neck so tight that I couldn’t make a sound. . . . My wife was in the apartment, but she didn’t hear anything.”
The first suspect — described by cops as a 30-year-old Hispanic man, who is 5-feet-9 and weighs about 180 pounds — finally let go of Cotto’s neck and the duo ran away.
He and his cohort — a Hispanic man, believed to be about 30 years old, 6-feet-3 and 200 pounds — were captured on surveillance video outside the building.
Cotto — who has four children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren with his longtime wife, Rosaura — expressed sympathy for the two goons.
“People like that, I wish them luck — because they will probably end up in a bad place,” he said. “They are nothing but cowards.”
Cotto and his wife have lived in the building for almost 50 years, he said.
“What happened was scary,” he said. “But I won’t move.”
Police ask anyone with information to call the NYPD’S Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.