An off-duty New York state corrections officer lost his gun during a strong-arm robbery in the Bronx early Sunday — about an hour before $200 was stolen from a Scottish tourist by crowbar-wielding miscreants in Central Park.
The corrections officer was walking with an acquaintance near Westchester Avenue and 162nd Street about 5:10 a.m. when three men walked up to him and flashed a gun, an NYPD spokesperson said.
The three robbers “forcibly removed jewelry, credit cards and a cell phone,” the spokesperson said.
The 33-year-old corrections officer — whose name has not been released — pulled out his own pistol sometime during the heist, police sources said.
But things went haywire.
The robbers fired a shot and punched the officer, who fell to the ground, sources said.
The crooks then stole his weapon as well.
Emergency medical services treated the officer for minor injuries, the NYPD said.
A little more than an hour later at 6:30 a.m., a group of crowbar-wielding bandits accosted a 54-year-old Scottish tourist on Center Drive in Central Park near 63rd Street, police said. The visitor lost about $200 to the thieves, but he was not injured.
No arrests have been made in either case, and police have no descriptions of the suspects.