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A heartless thug mugged a 2-year-old toddler in a Brooklyn elevator — saying nothing as he snatched the young girl’s bracelet while her terrified, pregnant mom looked on, The Post has learned.
Michael Andrews, 30, was arrested yesterday morning for the sickening attack, which happened a half-mile away from where a thug ripped a $400 chain off a 3-year-old boy’s neck as he sat in his stroller, sources said.
“He didn’t care that I was pregnant and he was stealing from a little girl,” said Adriani Espinal, whose daughter, Destiny Maizanche, was mugged six days before her third birthday.
“He grabbed my necklace and then he went for the baby,” she told The Post last night. “I told him to leave the baby alone because she was crying.”
Andrews was picked out of a photo lineup by Espinal, 25. He was being questioned by the police at the 79th Precinct station house in Bedford-Stuyvesant with charges pending.
Law-enforcement sources said Andrews allegedly targeted Espinal and her daughter as they entered an elevator at about 7:20 a.m. on July 6 at the building on Flushing Avenue where the tot’s grandmother lives.
The thief took the child’s $300 bracelet off her tiny wrist as well as her mom’s $300 necklace, according to the sources.
“He grabbed [the mom] hard and grabbed a necklace and an earring,” said Romulo Cruz, Espinal’s husband and Destiny’s stepdad. “Then he looked down at the baby. When he went for the bracelet, Adriani attacked him and started hitting him with her keys.”
The assailant got off on the second floor and made his escape.
Later that night, at about 7 p.m., the same thug allegedly pulled another mugging in the elevator of a building on Myrtle Avenue.
He allegedly brandished a gun, told the adult victim, “Don’t say nothing” and stole her $200 chain and cellphone.
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