MANHATTAN – A disturbing sexual assault was interrupted early Monday morning, when employees at ‘The UES’— the ice cream shop and speakeasy on Second Avenue in Yorkville on the Upper East Side— saw one of their coworkers being sexually abused by a stranger.
Surveillance video from inside the shop shows the suspect— who’s described as 6’3” tall, weighing roughly 160 pounds— enter the ice cream parlor around 12:30 am Monday morning and briefly speak with the 28-year-old worker— whose hands are full with boxes— before backing her into a corner and trying to grab her.
For a moment, the video shows the creep backs off— but as soon as the woman turns her back he makes a beeline for her— racing behind the counter as she turned away.
Police say the suspect groped the worker in multiple intimate places, then reached under her dress and grabbed her upper thigh. Co-workers came to the victim’s aid, investigators say, then the suspect ran from the scene on Second Avenue between East 88th and 89th Streets.
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Thankfully, the victim wasn’t physically injured.
‘The UES’ said in a statement it always has two people on duty and that’s why coworkers came to her aid so quickly.
“We were closed and that young lady was taking the ice cream downstairs for the night which we do on Sundays to defrost the freezer and our second employee was right underneath the stairs taking the boxes from her,” ‘The UES’ wrote on Instagram in response to a question from the public about late-night staffing.
“We have MULTIPLE people watching the front and cameras everywhere which is why our manager was able to be there in less than 30 seconds.”
Despite wearing a mask during the sexual assault, detectives obtained black and white surveillance video of the suspect with his mask down, smoking a cigarette nearby before the attack inside the shop.
If you recognize the man in the surveillance video, you’re asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-8477.
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