The grandmother of a little boy targeted by a hard-hearted chain-snatcher in Washington Heights watched in horror as the tot was cruelly mugged, the distraught relative told the Daily News Wednesday.
Little Gabriel Flores, 4, was wearing a $900 Cuban gold chain with the a “G” pendant, and walking with his grandmother and her Boston Terrier in a building on W. 182nd St. and Audubon Ave. at noon Saturday when he was robbed.
The mugger ripped the chain off Gabriel’s neck, cutting his skin in the process, and ran, police said.
“My (grand)baby said ‘Ma-ma! Ma-ma!’ I said, ‘What happened?!” his grandmother, Eugenia Mendez-Flores said in Spanish. “I saw the cut on his neck, and I said, ‘My baby, my baby!”
She said the robber didn’t touch her or the dog, only young Gabriel. The chain was a gift from the boy’s mother, Mendez-Flores said.
“My heart was pounding,” she said, putting her fist to her chest. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Mendez-Flores said the robbery happened in a flash.
“I’m still in pain,” she said of how the incident has affected her emotionally. “My poor (grand) baby.”
The suspect was described as Hispanic, wearing a dark-colored baseball cap, a blue jacket, blue jeans and gray sneakers.
Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
With Molly Crane-Newman