Maniac Who Attacked & Robbed Midtown Halal Food Cart Vendor Arrested, Parked on Rikers

A Mets hat-wearing maniac, 45-year-old Jeffrey Vargas of the Bronx, who is alleged to have viciously attacked and robbed a halal food cart vendor at in Hell’s Kitchen on Jan. 7 has been arrested.

Polic charged 45-year-old Jeffrey Vargas, of the Bronx was arrested as the suspect in the savage act occurred just outside the Food Emporium grocery store, on Eighth Ave. and 49th St.

The incident occurred at around 10:35 p.m. when Vargas, dressed in an off-color Mets logo baseball cap, a blue and white Tommy Hilfiger jacket and torn jeans is alleged to have launched an unprovoked assault against the 36-year-old man worker then manning bright reddish-orange food cart.

According to police, Vargas first pulled off a piece of plexiglass off the cart and smashed the worker’s face with it, stunning him enough that he able to steal $3,500 cash from the halal-food slinger’s pocket.

Quickly recovering, the vendor chased Vargas into the A/C/E subway station at 50th Street and 8th Avenue.

Notorious for the prevalence of drug addicts that loiter on the stairs, tonight the platform would prove even more perilous, as the vendor caught up with Vargas and took a picture of him with his phone—moments before the thief again attacked the vendor, this time with a rod-like metal implement that would be clearly visible when NYPD posted the suspect’s picture the following day.

When the story, and the picture, hit the press Wednesday—both the New York Post and Daily News picked up—the suspect was on the lam and the random brutality of the crime was shocking.

While some online observers speculated the perp was a “migrant,” more streetwise crime watchers opined that this quite unlikely, as neither the suspect’s appearance—a middle-aged light-skinned Hispanic in recognizably New York-style garb—nor his modus operandi suggested this.

Rather, he was most likely one of Gotham’s home-grown malefactors that are a familiar sight in midtown, especially the infamous 8th Avenue “Strip of Despair,” stretching from the high 20s, just south of Penn Station to at least 50th St.

With the victim, who suffered several broken teeth, still in Bellvue Hospita, the Daily News visited the scene, where a co-worker was filling in for his injured colleague. Unsurprisingly, the assailant wasn’t a stranger to the cart man, Hasan Lhenedeou. “This guy is trouble,” he said. “I hope they get him so he doesn’t come back.”

Meanwhile, the tabloid and television attention of the halal food cart attack had its effect, and though details haven’t been made public, NYPD detective Christopher Kissane arrested Jeffrey Vargas somewhere within the confines of the Midtown North Precinct at 12 p.m. on Thursday Jan. 9.

Vargas gave his address at 1851 Phelan Place in the Bronx, a six-story apartment building in the Morris Heights section.

Initially charged with 2nd degree robbery and 2nd degree assault, when Vargas was arraigned on Friday Jan. 10, the charges were upgraded to first and second degree robbery, both felonies.

The Manhattan D.A.’s office requested $75,000 cash bail, $150,000 bond, the judge lowered those figures to $40,000 cash, $90,000 bond.

At press time, Vargas is incarcerated in the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island, and was due back in Manhattan Criminal Court on Jan. 14.