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Cops on hunt for serial purse-snatcher around North Riverdale

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Police are looking for a woman they believe may have some connection to a string of robberies that have plagued the central part of Riverdale over the past few weeks. 

It all started Nov. 9, according to the New York Police Department, when someone walked behind an 84-year-old woman in front of a residential building near Oxford Avenue and West 236th Street around 7 p.m., yanking her hip pack off her left arm. That person ran off with $100 in cash and multiple credit cards. 

Later that evening, a woman tried to use one of the credit cards at the West 225th Street Target store.

It appears the attack wasn't isolated, however. Two more women suffered what seems to be similar robberies Nov. 17. A 64-year-old woman had her purse and phone snatched at 9 p.m., near Oxford and Johnson avenues. About a half-hour later, someone tried to steal the purse of a 45-year-old woman near Irwin Avenue and West 238th Street.

There was no description offered of the purse snatcher. However, the woman who tried to use the credit card at Target is described as a light-skinned woman with long hair, last seen wearing a black and blue hooded jacket, dark-colored pants, and dark-colored sneakers.

To see surveillance video of the woman police are seeking, click here.

Anyone with information in regard to any of these incidents are asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS, or submit their tips online — either at NYPDCrimeStoppers.com, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. Tips also can be texted to 274637, and then entering "TIP577."

All calls, police say, are strictly confidential.

NYPD, New York Police Department, 50th Precinct,