Cruel faker ‘helps,’ then robs granny
THE NYPD delivered the right cop to a woman in labor on the BQE.
The 35-year-old woman got a crucial assist from a Highway Patrol officer who used to be a paramedic when her daughter — a breech baby — decided to be born in an Uber cab right before the Kosciuszko Bridge in Queens on Sunday afternoon.
The umbilical cord was wrapped around the newborn’s neck, and she was turning blue, but Officer Raphael Mohammed arrived in time to reposition her and deliver her safely.
“When I got there, I would say things were bad,” Mohammed said. “I’m seeing a child body and not a head, and I’m looking closer and I see an umbilical cord. That’s when the pep in my step stepped in.”
The mom summoned an Uber car to take her, accompanied by her 2-year-old daughter, to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, at about 3:30 p.m. But the baby didn’t want to wait.
The driver started helping the mom give birth before Mohammed and Officer Randal McFarland showed up to relieve him.
McFarland directed traffic and escorted an ambulance to meet the cab, while Mohammed delivered the child. Mohammed said he’s done it before, but never a breech birth.
The mom and her newest daughter, who were not identified, were both healthy enough to pose for a Twitter photo with Mohammed and the proud father, whose name also was not provided, Sunday night. A THIEF pretended to give a disabled 81-year-old woman a helping hand — then abandoned the ruse and robbed her of $200 in her Bronx apartment building.
Cops on Sunday released disturbing surveillance video of the Friday ordeal, showing the robber (inset) leaving an elevator and seemingly holding the door for the victim. Then he spins around and motions for her to be quiet. He is holding something in his hand, possibly a knife, as he shouts at her.
“He was cruel, very cruel. It’s just meanness that would make a person do that,” the victim, who requested anonymity, said in her home Sunday.
Police said the bandit struck at 6:20 p.m. on Grand Concourse near Marcy Place in Mount Eden.
The woman told the Daily News she first saw the man a few blocks from her building as she walked home with her shopping cart.“I walk with a cane because I have bad back problems,” she said. When she got home, she struggled with the door. The man offered to help her, picking up her cart and putting it in the elevator. The kind gesture turned to malice.
“I thought he might beat me,” she said. “Then he turned to me and put his hand up in my face and said, ‘Don’t say a word. Don’t say anything, or I’ll cut you up. I just want your money. I’ll cut you up. I know where you live.’ ”