Cops: Laptop, cellphone taken in robberies

Nassau police reported four separate robberies this weekend, including an early-morning holdup at the Ikea store in Hicksville Sunday.

A woman was robbed of her laptop computer and its bag as she walked down a Baldwin street early Saturday morning, Nassau police said. The 32-year-old woman was walking east on Stanton Avenue from Grand Avenue about 3:25 a.m. when she was approached from behind by two men, police said.

One demanded her bag and showed her a box cutter while the other threatened that he had a gun. One of the men pulled the woman's bag off her shoulder, police said. The two headed west on Stanton Avenue.

Police described one suspect as about 25 years old, with a medium build and between 5-foot-5and 5-foot-7, with a chipped front tooth, tattoos on his left arm, and wearing a red baseball cap with black lettering. The other man was described as about 25 years old, with a medium build and between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-11, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

The woman sustained minor shoulder pain, but refused medical attention.At 4:55 a.m. on Saturday, police said, a man went into the Citgo gas station at 4000 Hempstead Tpke. in Bethpage carrying a steak knife. The man demanded money from the cashier, 27, who grabbed a wooden stick from behind the counter and chased the suspect away.

The man, described as between 20 and 25 years old, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with green eyes, fled in a two-door red car with flip-up headlights driven by a second person. No money was taken, police said.

The car drove south on Hicksville Road, and turned right onto Seamans Neck Road, police said. There were no injuries.About 3:40 a.m. Sunday, a 24-year-old Ikea employee had just opened the front door of Hicksville store when two men wearing masks, and with black handguns, came up behind him and forced him into the building, police said.

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They pushed him into a backroom and told him to open the store's safe. After the employee tried and failed, one of the men hit him on the head with a gun, police said. As the men were leaving empty-handed, they encountered a 41-year-old Ikea employee entering the building and robbed him of his wallet before fleeing.

Also Sunday, a 20-year-old man was walking along Hawthorne Avenue in Uniondale at 4:20 a.m. while texting on his cellphone when another man ran by and grabbed the phone out of his hand, police said.

The victim chased the man, described as thin and in his early 20s.When the victim chased and caught up with him, the robber turned and struck the victim across the left side of his face with a bottle, causing facial injuries, police said.

The victim began walking south on Hawthorne Avenue when he was approached by another man who was coming to his aid. But the victim, fearing another attack, punched the second man in the face, fracturing his nose, police said.

The two were taken to a hospital and treated for their injuries. Police said there were no charges in the second incident.

Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.