On Thursday, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer in Midtown Manhattan.
While the victim lay lifeless pinned underneath the trailer, a person approached the body and robbed him.
The deadly crash happened when the victim, who was alleged to be in his 50s, was crossing Eighth Avenue at West 44th Street. The video published by New York Post showed one of the spectators cheering the thief, saying, “Go ahead, gangsta! Go ahead!” A man who allegedly witnessed the crime taking place took the entire incident.
Watch the video here or below.
“They took his ID so we can’t ID him,” a high-ranking NYPD source said. “He’s a John Doe right now.”
More from the New York Post:
Cold-hearted bystanders can be heard on video egging the thief on.
“Go ahead, gangsta,” one man is heard shouting. “Go ahead!”
But more level-headed New Yorkers were still disgusted by the sick pickpocket.
“That’s crazy,” sanitation worker Jake Sean said at the scene Sunday. “How can you steal from a body on the street? That’s f–ked up. You’ve got to be at your lowest to do that.”
Security guard Luis Ortiz said the crime was callous even by Big Apple standards.
“Living in New York you expect to see some weird things,” Ortiz said. “But to go through a body and steal? That’s a new level. It’s sad to believe you could be a person who goes through a dead person’s pockets.”
Another local, Sandra, who works in finance, said she was “horrified.”
“That’s really a whole new level of horrificness,” the Queens resident said.
Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detective’s Endowment Association, maintained that the brazen crime is a symptom of a failed criminal justice system.
