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NYPD: Man Linked To Knifepoint Robberies May Have Struck Again

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man linked to nearly two dozen robberies in Queens and Long Island may have struck yet again.

Around 9:30 p.m. Monday, police said a man armed with a knife robbed a Subway restaurant on 20th Street in Far Rockaway. Police said he made off with about $600.

Two female employees were terrorized at knife-point. One woman told CBS2's Christine Sloan she was too shaken up to speak about it.

Investigators believe the same man is behind two dozen similar crimes involving 17 chains stores on Long Island, mostly Dunkin Donuts, Carvel and Subway, and now seven in Queens.

Police said most of  the shops he has targeted are close to highways, including a Subway on Springfield Boulevard in Bayside where he held up an employee and stole $500 Sunday afternoon.

Manny Gomez is a former NYPD detective who also worked with the FBI, two agencies searching for the brave thief.

"The more they commit these crimes successfully the bolder they get and the bolder they get eventually they make a mistake that is how they get caught," he said. "He is working his way west it seems to me this is a local person in that area who is familiar with the area has escape routes planned."

Some residents in the area think it's odd that the criminal has been caught on camera so many times without actually getting caught. Gomez said the suspect will slip up and be found, but police want that to happen before he hurts someone.

Police said the criminal is targeting these kinds of shops because they are easier with less security and fewer penalties than hitting banks.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

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