He took care of the beef!
A heroic supermarket butcher wouldn’t put up with a brazen bandit who tried to loot his Queens store and then beat up his special needs colleague.
Ray Wilkins, 49, fought off the creep and held two NYPD cops, who handcuffed the heartless guy.
Wilkins had just gotten off work and was warming up his moped when he saw a guy “walking across the parking lot” toward his autistic colleague.
“I thought maybe he knew him and was going to run up and hug him … until I saw him throw the first punch and hit him,” Wilkins told the Post on Saturday. “He punched him repeatedly in the face, probably six, seven times, before I could get off my moped over there. He didn’t say anything, just ran up to him and started hitting him. I managed to get there, grab this guy and throw him off him.”
Wilkins thwarted 23-year-old Jack Crumbley, a violent career criminal who allegedly pocketed ice cream, chips and beauty products from the Stop & Shop on Beach Channel Drive in the Rockaways around 8 p.m. Friday – and then set his sights on the unsuspecting 19-year-old – elderly autistic victim who sources say works as a grocery store helper.
Ray Wilkins, 49, fought off the creep and held two NYPD cops, who handcuffed the heartless guy. Brigitte Stelzer
Wilkins said he tried to call 911 on his phone and the “guy turned around and hit me again, so I had to step back and defend myself.”
“The guy lashed out at me, punched me twice in the face and I did what I had to do to defend myself,” Wilkins said. “He threatened me a few times. “He said, ‘Do you want that smoke?’ and he reached into his pants like he had a gun, hoping I would back away,” the butcher said.
Jack Crumbley, 23, is a violent career criminal.
After fending off roundhouse blows that were unsuccessful, the distraught attacker walked away, but Wilkins continued to follow him – and eventually called 911.
“I didn’t want to let him attack me and my colleague. There’s no way I would allow that,” he said.
The bandit is believed to have stolen from the Stop & Shop on Beach Channel Drive in the Rockaways on Friday. BRIGITTE STELZER
The suspect began running and jumped over a fence, and Wilkins followed suit.
“I jumped the fence, tripped and hurt my back,” he noted.
The suspect went to the NYPD’s 100 Precinct while Wilkins called 911. He saw a white shirt and another police officer get into a patrol car and shouted something to them. “I screamed. “Hey, stop that guy. He just attacked someone at my workplace and he attacked me.”
Crumbley had just robbed the Stop & Shop when he approached Wilkins’ colleagues.
Crumbley was arrested for allegedly robbing the Queens supermarket and beating the special needs worker in an unprovoked attack, police and sources said.
Crumbly, who sources say has been arrested more than 20 times, was wanted on a warrant last year for another unprovoked attack.
Wilkins had just returned from work and was warming up his moped when he saw the man attack his colleague. Brigitte Stelzer
In that incident, Crumbley allegedly punched a bus driver in Queens on Sept. 15, 2022, and yelled, “Why are you driving so recklessly,” sources said.
Crumbley was arrested a month later but released.
Last month, a Queens judge issued an arrest warrant for Crumbley in the assault case against a bus driver.
Crumbley, who sources said lives in a homeless shelter in Kew Gardens, was charged with robbery, assault and harassment.
Additional reporting by Katherine Donlevy