TEANECK, New Jersey
A generous $150 (euro127) restaurant tip with a stolen credit card helped lead police here to two men suspected of beating and robbing a 63-year-old woman.
Jovan McBean, 24, and Carlos Pinella, 23, are accused of beating and robbing the Teaneck woman last fall.
Police say they were able to track down McBean and Pinella because they used a stolen credit card from the robbery for cigarettes, gas and rounds of drinks before lavishing a waitress with a $150 tip (euro127).
The two men were arrested Friday and have been charged with the robbery of Nadezda Begitskaia and using her stolen credit card, police said.
Begitskaia was delivering medicine to an ill friend on Oct. 25 when the two hooded men jumped from behind a car and chased her down the street, police said. They then allegedly punched and kicked her, took her purse and went on a spending spree.
“It was a very cowardly act,” Teaneck Detective Lt. Dean Kazinci told The Record of Bergen County for Saturday newspapers.
At the Sangria Restaurant in Englewood, the pair spent heavily on food and drinks for themselves and others before leaving the waitress the hefty tip, police said.
Police later caught the men by viewing the surveillance camera at the restaurant.