A violent beggar choked a West Side man into unconsciousness in Central Park’s Ramble in a hellish mugging that underscores the famed park’s skyrocketing robbery stats.
“If you scream I’ll kill you,” were the last words the 53-year-old victim heard Thursday night as the fiend’s arm tightened around his throat and he collapsed to the ground, cops said.
Upon regaining consciousness about half an hour later, the victim, of West 57th Street, found that his wallet was gone.
His backpack, which held glasses, keys, gift cards, jewelry and cash, was also gone, cops said.
News of the brutal mugging had park-goers on edge Saturday.
“He could have died — that’s awful,” said Martin Ovalle, 38, who runs in the park at night and takes his wife and two young daughters to the Ramble on weekends.
“We are seeing a lot more now than in the past,” Ovalle agreed.
The West Side man’s chokehold mugging was the 20th forcible robbery in the park so far this year.
That’s twice as many as during the first seven months of 2014, when there were 10, according to statistics from the Central Park Precinct.
“It’s really shocking,” said parkgoer Tom Watson, 59, a vacationer from Leicester, England, who strolled the Ramble Saturday afternoon.
It was the second time in only two weeks that a parkgoer had been choked by a mugger.
On the morning of July 15, a Wednesday, a 26-year-old freelance writer had also suffered having a mugger’s hands around her neck, as she sat writing on a bench near the Great Hill.
That thug released his victim, Marianna Milkis-Edwards, as soon as she gave up her purse — which held only a measly dollar. Some of the woman’s possessions were later found on parolee Oscar Jiggetts, who has been locked up in lieu of $125,000 bail since July 21.
The newest choke victim was attacked at 10 p.m. Thursday in the northwestern corner of the densely wooded, 36-acre Ramble, which lies between the Lake and the 79th Street Transverse.
“I am hungry. Do you have any money?” the suspect asked.
The victim tried at first to brush the beggar off, telling him he had no cash and walking away.
But the mugger, who appeared to be around 35 years old, 5-foot-8 and weighing 160 pounds, jumped him from behind. He was still at large Saturday night.
There were 15 misdemeanor assaults between Jan. 1 and July 26 of this year, as opposed to 11 for the same period last year.
And narcotics arrests in the park have more than doubled this year.
There were 23 drug busts between Jan. 1 and July 26 of this year, as opposed to 10 for the same period last year.
Still, the number of criminal summonses has taken a nose dive, Perhaps pointing to more lax enforcement if such quality of life offenses as loitering, disorderly conduct, or public drinking and urinating.
Between Jan. 1 and July 26, parks cops wrote 2,100 summonses.
But during the same months of last year, they wrote 3,026 summonses.
That mugger, a teenager who is still at large, struck just before midnight on a Wednesday night at West 110th Street and Lenox Avenue.
He placed the victim, a 24-year-old woman, in a chokehold and threw her to the ground. A female accomplice, also in her teens, then swiped the victim’s handbag and the muggers fled the scene.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Stephanie Pagones, and Jennifer Bain