Man steals 92-year-old's glasses and Bible in Manhattan

 

A 92-year-old man who was mugged for his Bible and a pair of glasses at his Chelsea apartment building said his life was “beautiful” before the attack, but now he’s not so sure.

Ricardo Velez, — a devout Jehovah’s Witness — said he had just finished dinner with a friend when a heartless bandit followed him into the W. 18th St. building and knocked him to the ground shortly before midnight on Monday.
“I saw him push me,” Velez said Thursday from his bed at Bellevue Hospital, where he is recovering from a broken hip. “I fell on my hip on the right side and was trying to get up, but I couldn’t. I opened the second door and started yelling, ‘Help! Help!’”
His longtime neighbor, Radmes Hernandez, 82, was alerted to the cries after his toy poodle, Sheila Black, heard them and began yapping.
When Hernandez swung open the door, the pooch darted down the stairs and found the frail Velez curled up on the floor and reeling in pain.
“Somebody mugged me,” Velez told his worried neighbor. “Somebody hit me on the head. My hip hurts.”
The suspect — wearing dark clothing and a red baseball cap — fled the scene with a brown bag containing the elderly man’s Bible and a pair of glasses, but dropped a pair of scissors near the front door.
“I wouldn’t have heard the yelling if it wasn’t for (my dog),” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said he called 911 and that emergency workers quickly rushed Velez to the hospital.
Velez said he moved to New York from Puerto Rico with his parents when he was just 8 years old and has never been attacked while living in the city.
“I used to think it’s a beautiful life, but everything comes to an end. And that’s what the other day was,” the injured man said.
“I used to go here or there, shopping, everywhere,” Velez continued. “I have a bad habit: I talk to everyone. In my neighborhood, I love to walk around. Now I don’t know if I’ll be able to move around like that again.”
He said he was devastated to lose the most prized book in his collection.
“The Bible was extremely important,” he said. “It was leather-bound and well-printed. I loved that Bible.”
Hernandez said he hopes cops cuff the crook soon.
“There’s a lot of bad people in the streets,” Hernandez said. “There are a lot of crazy people. ... It shouldn’t have happened to (Velez).
“They need to catch this guy.”

As police continued to hunt for the suspect, the reward for his capture swelled to $22,000.