Slowest. Getaway. Ever.
A crook on crutches swiped a laptop from a grad student at Columbia University and then made his escape slower than a toddler taking his first steps.
“He looked like a disabled person,” said victim Hongxiang Huang. “I didn’t think he was the person who took it. I was shocked.”
The bearded bandit joins the ranks of the “Columbia Creepers,” intruders who “creep around the hallways and, when nobody is looking, they just take things,” a law- enforcement source told The Post.
The thieves target the Morningside Heights campus to prey on deep-pocketed students.
In the crutch caper, the suspect hobbled into the School of International and Public Affairs on March 6 and pretended to be sick and “about to faint,” according to Bwog.com, a student blog. He then snatched an unattended bag with the laptop and fled. Slowly.
The NYPD released a surveillance photo of him (pictured) walking outside the building at 420 W. 118th St. The same thief also struck in February — without the crutches — when he stole a wallet from Kent Hall, police said.
Cops believe that the metal crutches could be a prop the perp uses to avoid looking suspicious. “He could be using the crutches as a ruse to fake people out,” the source said.
Cops often ID the “creepers” from surveillance images, but did not recognize the suspect on crutches. “Usually we arrest these guys because there’s always a lot of video and [we say], ‘Oh, that’s the guy from last year,’ and we go out and get him. The guy on crutches we’ve never seen before,” the source said.
Students say thefts by outsiders are part of life at the campus.
“It happens a couple of times a semester,” said Andrea Golfari.
“Someone gets into the building, and they’ll steal a laptop from a table. People go get coffee and they’ll leave it there.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona