Police Continue Search For Knife Wielding Suspects Targeting Baby Boutiques In Brooklyn

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- Police say they're looking for two men who have stolen money and credit cards from at least three stores in Carroll Gardens.

The two suspects are hitting family-friendly neighborhoods with baby boutiques and children's gift shops, CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported.

"We're across the street from the children's playground and an elementary school and we're still being targeted," Harmony Villandry, of Area Play, told CBS2.

She wants the two suspects off the street.

"Hopefully we'll get these guys by word of mouth," Villandry said.

The NYPD released surveillance photos taken right after the suspects allegedly used a credit card stolen during a string of three armed robberies in the past month. The targets: young women in their 20s working as clerks in high-end children's stores in this part of Brooklyn, including Area Play, The Tiny Brooklyn, and an upscale gift shop called Pink Olive Park Slope.

Local parents call the suspects cowards.

"It's just inappropriate. It's kind of the easiest place to hit, it's like robbing an old lady or something," one resident said.

"It's obviously very cowardly situation. They're exploiting the comfort level in this neighborhood," another said.

Investigators said one of the suspects stays outside to stand guard while the other goes in armed with a knife, threatens the clerks and sometimes locks them in a back room taking cash from the register, the women's purses and their cell phones.

Thankfully no one has been hurt, but the traumatized clerk threatened at Area Play last month quit her job.

"She's not doing very well. She left the state, went home to her family for a little bit. She's definitely doing some therapy, it takes a toll on you," Villandry said.

At Area Play, they've now installed cameras inside the store for the first time. Tiny Brooklyn on Court Street just put in an electronic door lock to protect their workers and customers.