As New York City Mayor Eric Adams grapples with a surge in crime, one of his top aides was robbed at gunpoint in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, according to reports.
The aide was walking near the former Brooklyn Navy Yard when he was accosted by two suspects around 10:30 a.m., according to the New York Post.
"You don’t want to do this. I work for the mayor," the aide, identified as 33-year-old Christopher Baugh, informed the robbers, a law enforcement source told the Post.
One of the suspects lifted his shirt to display the butt of a gun tucked in his waistband and they made off with the victim's city-issued cell phone and wallet, according to the Post.
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS TO APPOINT ‘GUN VIOLENCE CZAR’ AS SHOOTINGS, KILLINGS PERSIST
The Mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday evening.
There have been 8,314 robberies throughout New York City so far this year, a 39.7% increase over the same time frame in 2021, according to NYPD data.
Car thefts are up 46.7%, grand larceny is up 49.4%, burglaries are up 33.6%, assaults have surged 19.3%, and rapes are up 13.1%. The only major crime index that has fallen this year is murder, which has dropped 9.9% after an unusually bloody 2021.
The crime wave isn't lost on New Yorkers, as 76% of city residents said they were concerned that they could be a victim of a violent crime in a Siena College poll last month.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Adams, a former NYPD captain who ran on a tough-on-crime platform, said the level of crime in the city took him by surprise in his first six months in office.
"Let me tell you something: When I started looking into this, I was shocked at how bad this place is," he told the New York Post while riding the subway system on June 27.