Video surveillance shows a masked man entering the My Way Convenience Smoke Shop on Third Avenue and East 89th street, aiming a handgun at the clerk.

Police say the gunman made off with $6,000. This case is part of a surge in robberies on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.

What You Need To Know

  • Upper East and West Side communities are seeing much higher robbery percentages compared to citywide stats

  • The 19th precinct area had 23 robberies in the last month, more than double the number from same time period last year

  • Detectives say teenagers are fueling the robbery spike

  • Victims range in age from young teens to seniors in their eighties

“The nuts and bolts of the reason for the increases in Manhattan North robbery are juvenile robbery, delivery robberies, where delivery workers are either getting robbed of money and/or their bikes," said NYPD deputy chief Brian McGee.  "We’ve been seeing a lot of the e-bike robberies the whole year.”

McGee is the commanding officer for Manhattan north detectives.

He says teenagers, some as young as 13 and 14 are responsible for the robbery spike.

“You have a 16-year-old, you have a 17-year-old and you have another 16-year-old in an hour and a half basically do five robberies on the East Side and Central Park and a gun is recovered,” he said.

Robberies citywide inched up two percent in the last month.

The 19th precinct which covers the Upper East Side is facing a serious uptick over the last month. The area had 23 robberies, more than double the number that occurred in the same time last year.

The 20th precinct on the Upper West Side had 10 reported robberies in the last month, up from just three last year at the same time. One of the victims is the 13-year old son of NYPD deputy commissioner John Miller.

A teen was charged in that case for stealing the boy’s phone and money.

Cops have plenty of video of other cases.

“And as simply as that, he is going to follow them and walk down the block and do a knife point robbery,” explained McGee while looking at some surveillance video in his Harlem office.

Police are still looking for whoever robbed the smoke shop. One employee says he’s only willing to work the morning shift now because he’s nervous about getting robbed and hurt.

“My boss told me whatever you have just give it to them. Life is life, so money doesn't matter. Only life matters. So give them whatever they want,” said the employee.

That's good advice and Deputy Chief McGee says while on the street people should pay less attention to their phones and more attention to their surroundings.