By Mike Schnitzel
According to Detective Sgt. John Giambrone of the Robbery Squad, Ivan Albarracin, 17, Walter Greene, 19, and Jamel Alston, 18, all of Valley Stream, and Juan Carlos Morales, 17, of Richmond Hill, were stopped on Spencer Street in Lynbrook shortly after 11 p.m. last Saturday by Lynbrook police officer Christopher Skartsiaris while they were driving a gold-colored Toyota.
Robbery Squad detectives said that Skartsiaris stopped the Toyota after determining that it matched the description of a car used in a string of robberies that had taken place on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, police said, a 13-year-old boy was confronted on Wilson Road in Valley Stream at about 7:12 p.m. by a man armed with a black revolver. The robber demanded the boy's cell phone and iPod and then hopped into a gold-colored car, which was driven away by an accomplice.
An hour later, two men who fit the description of the Valley Stream robbers approached a 16-year-old boy behind the Lynbrook High School administration building on Union Avenue and demanded his cell phone and iPod after placing what the victim described as a hard object against his back, police said. The robbers then fled through the school parking lot.
According to Giambrone, the two men were suspects in a robbery on Saturday in Carle Place, in which a man was robbed of his iPod and cell phone, and a robbery of a pedestrian the previous day in Cedarhurst. Police did not say what was taken during that robbery. No one was injured in any of the incidents.
According to Lynbrook Police Detective Fred Fusswinkel, officers recovered three iPods and three cell phones, among other items, while making the arrests. "Although the case remains under investigation," he said, "we believe that at least one of the recovered items was from a robbery that took place in Lynbrook." Other items, he said, were from New York City and Nassau County crimes.
The four suspects were arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on Monday. Investigations by both the Robbery Squad and Lynbrook Police Department are continuing, according to police officials.
Mary Malloy contributed to this story. Comments about it? VSeditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
