Puff-pushing perps transfer bank cash from man’s phone

BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Where there’s smoke…there was mobile-banking theft.

Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a pair of robbers in connection with an East Village robbery.

Cops said that on Tues., Nov. 9, around 3 a.m., a 26-year-old man was walking at First Avenue and E. Fourth Street when two male strangers approached him and “coerced him into smoking an unknown substance.”

The pair then reportedly forced the victim into a vehicle and wrested a cell phone from him. Without the victim’s permission, they then transferred roughly $4,500 out of accounts from his phone, then fled. No injuries were reported.

Police released a surveillance photo showing the two suspects, plus video showing one of them, who wore eyeglasses, talking to another man, whose image is blurred.

Police ask that anyone with information call the N.Y.P.D.’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted the Crime Stoppers Web site at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on Twitter at @NYPDTips. All tips are strictly confidential.

Rewards for Crime Stoppers tips can go up to $3,500.