One of Mayor Bloomberg’s top aides – known for tackling the city’s biggest problems – tackled a perp who stole a woman’s cell phone on a midtown street last night. Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, 35, who oversees the NYPD, wrestled with the teenaged thief on 48th St. and knocked the phone out of his hands. “He cuts him off at a right angle. The combination of him reaching for the individual and the individual slipping on ice …,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. “He’s able to tackle him,” Browne said.”This was not a fight. (Skyler) said there were no punches thrown.”Skyler was getting out of his car en route to dinner on 48th St. between 6th and 7th avenues when he heard a woman screaming about 200 feet away at 8:05 p.m., cops said.
He chased four men who fled westbound, cops said, grabbing one punk near a parked car until one of the three felonious friends helped him escape.
The 6-foot-4 Skyler chased them for a moment, then returned to comfort the woman until uniformed cops got to the scene.
“He said the whole incident … lasted two or three minutes,” Browne said. “It appears that the perp gave up the cell phone in the struggle with the deputy mayor.”
It’s unclear if the victim, a 41-year-old woman from West Orange, N.J., knew that her savior was a deputy mayor known for taking on some of Bloomberg’s biggest problems.
Cops later picked up two groups of young men nearby, but the victim was not able to identify them.
{NY Daily News/Matzav.com Newscenter}
Whew!