Posted at Pearl's (Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)

Posted at Pearl’s (Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)

If you’re in the habit of walking home alone while checking your Facebook feed with just one eye open, it might be time to wise up: police in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are on the lookout for a man who has robbed five area residents in the last two weeks as they returned from bars in the evening.

“He’s only been striking between 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m.,” said Stefan Komar, captain of the 94th Precinct. “I don’t know why, but he has a schedule.”

The robberies have taken place in an area between McGuinness Boulevard to North 12th Street, and between Richardson Street to Driggs Avenue, Komar said. The suspect, a black man in his twenties, uses his DMX BMX bike as a getaway vehicle. “He looks for people who have their phones out, especially if they seem distracted or intoxicated,” said Komar. “He rides up, grabs the phone and rides away.”

There’ve been other cell phone thefts in the area, as well. In one incident, a man who appeared to be in his late twenties approached a woman who was walking alone, tapped her on the shoulder, and then rushed away. While she was distracted, a second man grabbed her phone and ran off.

Komar revealed the incidents just a week after we spotted an NYPD alert announcing several robberies in Bushwick. The flyer, posted by the 83rd Precinct, indicates that “residents walking home from bars and restaurants in the early morning hours are being robbed of their property by two to six male Hispanics using physical force or displaying a knife to steal the victims’ property.” Those incidents occurred in an area between Nicholas Avenue and Irving Avenue, and between Gates Avenue and Harman Street.