New York Post

‘Sopranos’ vic

Senior robbed while watching flick

- By AMANDA WOODS awoods@nypost.com

Two crooks snatched an 82-year-old woman’s purse as she watched “The Sopranos’’ prequel flick in an Upper West Side theater, a witness who says she was also robbed told The Post on Tuesday.

The disturbing plot twist happened at the AMC Lincoln Square 13 on Broadway at around 6:50 p.m. Oct. 3, according to police.

The elderly woman realized what was happening and tried to hold on to her bag, but to no avail, according to cops and Megan Palin, 39, who said her bag was also stolen.

“This older lady . . . yelled out for help — she sounded really distressed — and then a few people around her jumped up and started running. And then she said, ‘He’s got my bag!’ ” Palin told The Post.

“I knew I had my bag on the chair next to me, and I immediatel­y looked, and it was gone.

“When detectives came, [the older victim] said she noticed this guy moving around and that he smelled like weed,” Palin said. “She actually clutched her bag tighter on her lap. And as she did that, he still came up over toward her and just grabbed onto it and pulled it out of her hand and ran off.”

Palin said that there were around 20 people in the theater watching “The Many Saints of Newark” and that several of them — including her husband — chased after the suspects (in surveillan­ce images above) but couldn’t catch them.

One of them ran off immediatel­y after robbing the senior, but the other stuck around for a while and even claimed his own book bag was stolen, Palin said.

She said her bag held some cash, her driver’s license and her credit cards, which she immediatel­y canceled.

“I just felt for the older lady,” Palin said. “I think for somebody of that age to feel like they can’t go out without becoming the victim of a violent . . . crime is really quite bad.

“And also I’m just shocked by how brazen they were,” she said of the crooks. “Right when you think you’re sort of safe and OK, you realize that’s not necessaril­y the case.”

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