A Nigerian journalist and former United Nations employee, Abdullahi
Shuaibu, was busted for robbing four Manhattan banks during his lunch hour,
authorities said.
He was picked up by police on Monday and hit with two counts
of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery for the crimes committed during
his two-month spree.
All four banks are within walking distance of his office at
the Foreign Press Centre, inside the US Mission to the United Nations, which is
across the street from the UN building.
The Nigeria native works as a journalist for an African news
agency, police said.
Authorities were led to the thief after a retired police
officer, who works as a guard at the US Permanent Mission to the UN recognized
Shuaibu from a surveillance image previously released by the NYPD.
“It wasn’t hard [to recognize him],” the guard told The
Post. “He comes in and out of here every day.”
In the first incident, Shuaibu walked into a Santander Bank
on Madison Ave. near E. 43rd St. on February 27 and told the teller he had a
gun. The bank employee complied and handed Shuaibu an unknown sum of money.
He hit two more banks during the month of March, first
striking out at a Bank of America on Third Ave. near E. 47th St. on the 13th.
He was successful in robbing a Santander Bank on Third Ave. and E. 63rd St. on
the 27th.
During the most recent incident on Monday, Shuaibu walked
into an HSBC on Third Ave. and E. 40th St. around 2:30 p.m. and passed a note
demanding cash to the teller. The teller did not read the note and asked
Shuaibu for identification.
He then instructed the employee to read the note, keeping
his hand in his jacket pocket while simulating a gun, police said.
Police arrested him later in the day when he returned to the
UN.
One of Shuaibu’s colleagues at the Foreign Press Center said
they are “all in shock right now.”
A UN spokesman said Shuaibu worked briefly for the United
Nations for a couple of months in the fall of 2013, but hasn’t had access to
the facility since leaving in November of that year.
“He is not an employee of the UN nor is he an accredited
journalist to the UN,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Source: NY Post
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